Jewish Life October 1956 by Jewish Action

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TENTH A N N IV ER S A R Y ............................ THIN EDGE, THICK W ED G E. ................ LOST: O N E C A N A L____ _______

S aul B ernstein , Editor M. M orton R ubenstein D r. E ric O ffenbacher R euben E. Gross R abbi S. J. S harfman L ibby K laperman

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THE TREE OF L I F E . . ................................ Joseph Kaminetsky

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WHAT IS AMERICA'S IMMIGRATION POLICY? ................................................... Arthur Greenleigh

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THE RABBINATE, THE STATE AND THE DIASPORA .......................... Isaac R. Nissim, Rishon L'Tzion

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THE JEWISH ORPHAN.............................. 29 Isaac Trainin

JEW ISH LIFE- is published bi-monthly. Subscriptioh two years $3.00, three years $4.00, four years $5.00.

Rabbi H. S. Goldstein, Wil liam Weiss, Samuel Nirenstein,’ William B. Herlands, Max J. Etra, Honorary Pres idents ; B e n ja m in Koenigsberg, Nathan K. Gross, Ben jamin Mandelker, Samuel L. Brennglass, Vice Presidents; Edward A. Teplow, Treas urer; Reuben E. Gross, Sec retary.

BALANCE SHEET OF A D E C A D E . . . . Eugene Duschinsky

THE S H O F A R ............................................ Aryeh Newman

inside Illustrations by

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YUGOSLAVIA REVISITED Moshe Maber

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President

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SHORT STORIES M A R A .......................................................... Ursula Lehman

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FEATURES A M O N G OUR CONTRIBUTORS......... 2 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR..................... 79 KASHRUTH D IR EC T O R Y .......................... 94 Excerpts selected and translated by Rabbi Jacob Sodden PHOTO CREDITS: 16, 18, Torah Umesorah; 22, 24, Three Lions; 33, 36, Wide World.

/ImaHtf Qua CarittiikuioM* RABBI ISAAC R. NISSIM, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, bears the traditional title "Rishon L'Tzion." The author of several scholarly works, including Ayin Hatav and "Mishpatey Tzedek," Rabbi Nissim was bom in Baghdad, Iraq, and settled in the Holy Land in 1934. MOSHE MABER is the pen name of an American businessman who has made sev eral visits to Yugoslavia. DR. DAVID DE SOLA POOL is rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of New York, the oldest Jewish congregation in the Unit ed States. A world leader of Sephardi Jewry, Dr. Pool has played a leading role in many fields of Jewish endeavor on the American and world scenes. He is the author of numerous books and articles. His latest work, "An Old Faith in. the New World," which he co-authored with Mrs. Pool, is a definitive history of his 300-year-old congregation. ARTHUR GREENLEIGH has served in the field of social work for almost twenty-five years. A former executive director of the United Hias Service and the United Service for New Americans, his interest in the problems of refugees dates back to. 1932 when he served as executive director of the National Refugee Service. He is the chairman of the International Advisory Committee to the United Nations on immigration policy. RABBI ISAAC L. SWIFT is the -spiritual leader of Congregation Anshe Sfard in Boro Park, Brooklyn, and former Chief Rabbi of Australia. DR. JOSEPH KAMINETSKY is director of Torah Umesorah, National Society for Hebrew Day Schools and editor of "The Jewish Parent." A noted educator, author and speaker, he is a leading pioneer worker in the Day School movement and has guided its growth during the past decade. RABBI EUGENE DUSCHINSKY is the director of the Committee of Religious Organiza tions for Aliyah of the Jewish Agency. A former resident of Cape Town, South Africa, he is a frequent contributor to JEWISH LIFE. RABBI ISAAC TRAININ is the advisor on Religious Affairs of the Federation of

Jewish Philanthropies. ARYEH NEWMAN is assistant director of the Jewish Agency's Department of Torah Education to the Diaspora. His article, "Chanukah—the Moulding of a Festival," ap peared in the Kislev, 5716 issue of JEWISH LIFE. ' . RABBI DAVID S. SHAPIRO, founder of the Milwaukee Hebrew Academy in Mil waukee, Wisconsin, is the spiritual leader of Congregation Anshe Sfard in that city. He has written numerous articles for leading Hebrew and Anglo-Jewish periodicals. yRSULA LEHMAN was reared in Detroit, Michigan, and studied at the Beth Jacobs Teachers Seminary in Brooklyn and Hunter College in New York.

JEWISH LIFE

TENTH ANNIVERSARY T E N YEARS AGO, erev Rosh Hashonah, 5707, this magazine was born. Its task was, and remains, to transmit and to nurture an intrinsically Jewish purpose in life. For us, the printed word is a means to an end beyond that of literature. Throughout, J e w is h L if e has endeavored not merely to interest — although reader interest and literary appeal form a basic aspect of our program — but to inspire a strengthened identification with Jewish belief, an enhanced sense of the vital relevance of Torah teaching to every facet of life and of the indestructible creativity of the Torah-inspired Jewish spirit. In furtherance of these aims, our magazine has sought to apply an outlook rooted in Torah to all matters of Jewish concern. W e have undertaken to present fare combining meaningful content with readable style, addressing ourSelves to the Jewish reader of today, to his needs, to his questions, to his aspirations. If. at this anniversary, congratulations are in order, J e w is h L if e will have earned them only to the extent that its aims have been fulfilled. It is true enough that, among Jewish periodicals, mortality rates are high, j. particularly so for those which, like this, are based upon volun. . tary circulation. But meaningful accomplishment in terms of the C riterion fuifinment Qf the Jewish spirit, rather than physical survival, is the criterion by which all Jewish endeavor must be judged. W e dare hope that J e w is h L if e has endured because it offers a needed con tribution to Jewish life and living. T H E WORLD of ten years ago did not lend itself easily to the purposes to which this magazine is dedicated. It was a world which had all but drowned in human blood. Dreams of a machine-made paradise had collapsed in a man made inferno. In Europe, a pitiful remnant of Jews had survived mechanized butchery; the Jewish scene throughout the world, save only the re-born but embattled Yishuv in Eretz Yisroel, presented a spectacle of fear and demoraliza tion. The House of Israel, besieged and bombarded on every side, bled too from internal wounds. W ith Jewry experiencing its greatest trial since the Dispersion, large numbers of Jews stood spiritually disarmed. At that moment, our people, and all that the Jew represented, stood on the brink of extinction. Only in the light of the conditions of ten years ago can the events of the succeeding years be seen in their true magnitude. And only in the light of that which has been vouchsafed to our people during this decade can we perceive the vast tasks which are ours today. To proclaim triumphantly: Jewry has survived! is to rob history of its content. We, who were at point of death, have been granted the opportunity to live— not merely to exist. Can we fail to realize that it is not our merits but the Merits of our Fathers which have won Sept.-Oct., 1956

for us this miraculous reprieve? Shall we not understand that not because of our worth but for that of our children, of the generations to come, of the heritage we bear and must transmit, has our generation been made to live on? This has been the theme of the past decade of Jewish history as seen by this publication. Not "how may I live?'’ but "how may I live a Jewish life?” is the problem of the Jew. Our people has been slow, painfully slow, to learn, but signs point to the reawakening. DECADE AGO, assimilationism reigned supreme; retreat from the Torah had turned into veritable flight from Judaism. Insecure, rootless, American Jewry became possessed by a psychosis of apologetics. The primary energies and resources of the community were devoted to agencies for combatting Anti semitism, for cultivating "understanding between Jew and non-Jew,” for count ering defamation and discrimination, for "explaining” the Jew, demonstrating that he is just as other men, for justifying his existence. This work still com mands fortunes annually but no longer does it command the center of the scene. Profoundly shaken by the martyrdom of European Jewry, inspired by the epochal struggle for and attainment of the Jewish state, moved, perhaps not least significantly, by* a newly awakened sense of the glory of the Jewish heritage and of personal responsibility for its perpetuation, Jews in America and throughout the Diaspora h,ave undergone a radical change of direction. Security, our people have been learning, is not to be bought; it must be built — from within ourselves. The change of orientation has been neither complete nor uncontested. Could one dissect the mind of almost any American Jew, there would be found a strange complexity of differing motives and conflicting aims. The past has left its lasting impress, with which the message of the present must ever wrestle. Hence the tortuous compromises which characterize the Jew of today, in his individual and collective capacity. JJE N C E , though we see emerging from the past decade an awakening to the fundamental importance of Jewish education, we see efforts, money and above all generations of children frittered away on one- and two-day a week schools that are a sheer deception. As against this, however, we see the emergence of one of the miracles of our time, the Day Schools, originally fought with frenzied hostility, later begrudgingly accepted and today well on the way to general recognition as the basic pattern of American Jewish primary education. Characteristic of the past decade, too, has been the battle to re-establish the Jewishness of Jewish communal institutions. This, too, was a struggle against entrenched assimilationism. It is a battle yet to be won, yet not fought in vain, for never again, in our time, will the rulers of our communal institutions force Tarfuth upon their helpless clients with their one-time impunity. Our decade, again, has experienced the call of the Synagogue. Tens of thousands of Jewish families, once remote from participation in organized religious life, have found themselves reaching out to a link with the Synagogue. Here also there has been, in many cases, a costly experimentation with vain substitutes, with things of vanity and nought, with institutions which assured their victims that they were "just as good” as the real synagogue but with 4

JEWISH LIFE

doctrines comfortably adjusted to the untutored demands of the most ignorant and the most un-Jewish. Yet, on the credit side, we see a remarkable upsurge in authentic synagogue life, with daily and Sabbath attendance at a peak higher than for decades past. We see Shemirath Shabboth rising—still far below our aspirations, yet far above the shameful low mark of a previous era. So, even more apparent, with Kashruth observance, the growth of which, in the past decade, forms a truly phenomenal aspect of American Jewish life. So, too, with Taharath Hamishpochah, but recently the subject of a stock blasphemy in the unclean mouth of every Second Avenue or resort hotel "Jewish comedian,” today again becoming reverenced as the sanctification of family life. W e see a Jewish youth that glories in Jewishness, that wants but to be led and to be taught the true way. W e see a dawning realization of the sublimity and binding force of Halochah, a realization that Jewish law is sacred and inD ram atic divisible, that it is to be upheld and lived by. W e see a dramatic Growth £rowtk *n i § | numt>er and enrollments of Yeshivoth and Mesivtoth, commanding day by day an even higher role in the life and outlook of the community. W e see a strengthening and integra tion of the entire realm of Orthodoxy and a radical enhancement of its position in the Jewish world. And, rising above all the murk and confusion and contradic tory trends of the Jewish scene, we see a growing affirmation of Torah and Mitzvah, and of all that these portend. | N OUR PAGES, through the past ten years, J e w is h L if e has viewed and probed the changing scene, has offered its interpretations and has applied its principles, with constructive aim ever in mind. W e earnestly trust that our efforts, in however small a way, have contributed to the raising of Jewish life from the level of degradation and despair to which it had fallen a decade ago. Today, as at first, the Jewish scene is a mosaic of black, white and grey patches; we are persuaded that the proportion of white to black is higher than formerly. But a titanic work is to be done and the heart and mind of each Jew in the world alone can determine that it shall be done. For its part, J e w ish L if e rededicates itself, at this tenth anniversary and on this eve of Rosh Hashonah, to the high purpose for which the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America brought this publication into being. To our thousands of loyal readers throughout the world, we offer our heartfelt appreciation and our pledge that J e w is h L if e will ever strive to be worthy of their support. To our readers cand to all Israel, we extend wishes for a Kethivah V’Chathimah Tovah. May the coming year bring peace and well being to our people and to all mankind. —Saul Bernstein

THIN EDGE, THICK WEDGE JpOLLOWING the failure of several attempts to secure a foothold in Israel, the Reform movement has adopted a new tactic in its efforts to penetrate the Jewish State. This time, eschewing further claim to an Israeli following, the Reform group demands the right to establish a Reform temple, for the benefit Sept.-Oct., 1956

of visiting students, at an archeological school to be established by them in Jerusalem. Israel’s religious populace views this project as a menace to spiritual unity. The project’s sponsors, however, have found an ally in non-religious members of Jerusalem’s city administration. By a political maneuver, the latter have railroaded through a permit for the Reform services to be held. Thus, after a century of effort by Reform to expunge Zion from the hearts of Jewry, they apparently have secured official permission to infiltrate the Holy City. The device employed in this instance by the Reform group is clearly the thin edge of a thin wedge. Faced by outraged opposition, the authors of the scheme resorted to a smokescreen cry of "religious freedom. The speciousness of this is patent. The overwhelming mass of Israelis, observant and non observant alike, see in Reform a perversion of Judaism, alien to the character of the Jewish people, the Jewish religion and the »Jewish State, Its attempted introduction to the Israel scene derives from no Israeli source and corresponds to no Israeli concept of Jewish religious expression. In the face of this, Reform proposes to import its foreign wares into Israel under guise of Judaism; it proposes to impose upon Israeli Jewry a cult which, however questionable in itself, bears unlimited potential for evil when posing as the faith of Israel. T H E ISSUE may be illustrated by parallel. Historically, the relationship of Reform to the Jewish religion is akin to that of the "American Council for Judaism” to Zionism. Were the American Council for Judaism to label itself "Reform Zionism” and claim entree to Israel as such, would such admission — under official auspices! — be deemed justifiable on the premise of "political freedom? Undoubtedly, this claim would be forthwith rejected as attempted subversion. . The motive for secularist political support of the Reform project is con sistent with its present strategy: to use any means to prevent Israel’s growing religious, traditional majority from consolidating its strength and implementing its potential. This objective, pursued with increasC om m on ¿ng intensity, overcomes inhibitions against trafficking with ReCause form — all the more because the latter is not a factor on the Israeli scene. Since Reform similarly fears an Israel dedicated to Torah, the two find common cause in the undermining of Israeli Judaism. TN SEEKING entree to the Jewish State, the Reform movement has again demonstrated its doctrinal bankruptcy. Born of the disavowal of Zion, Reform heretofore spurned alike the peoplehood of Israel, the traditional faith of Israel and belief in the rebirth of the Jewish nation in its own land. The rejection of the historic content and goals of Jewish existence has formed the content and goal of Reform. Events, however, have stripped the major premises of Reform of any shadow of validity. Perpetuation of the movement has entailed outward accom modation to realities incompatible with basic Reform doctrines. Through the past years, important leaders of the Reform movement have endeavored to counter-balance its primary motif — assimilation to Christian standards and the Gentile world — with an antithetical assimilation to Judaism and espousal of Zionism. 6

JEWISH LIFF

The emergence of Medinath Yisroel has been a profound shock to Reform. A dynamic new focal point for a Jewish-oriented life, Israel’s existence nullifies the rationale of the Reform movement. Hence, its leaders deduce, Israel must be neutralized vis-a-vis Reform. Hence, their determination to set up a counter force — within Israel itself. J N FAIRNESS, it should be noted that the forced transplanting of Reform into Israel appears to bear only limited support among adherents of the movement in this country. Some of these, however earnestly they may justify the existence of Reform, retain scruples against grafting it onto holy soil. It is significant that the Jerusalem project is being led by Dr. Nelson Glueck, archeologist who is president of the Reform seminary, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Dr. Glueck is reputed to be the spokesman for an influential faction demanding adherence to the "classical” Reform of previous years. This outlook is reflected in Dr. Gltieck’s "The River Jordan,” a | |m work manifesting a pronouncedly Christological point of view. L ig h t W ritten in 1946, a year so climactic in Jewish destiny, the book ignores alike the Yishuv of modern times and of earlier centuries —but is replete with devoutly cited Christian references. It is the author of this notable feat who is now bringing new light to Zion. The importing of Reform into the Holy Land raises an issue not of freedom of religion, but of the duty to defend Israel against spiritual subversion. Israel has many wants, but Reform is not one. of them. For the sake of all that has gone into the rebuilding of the Yishuv, for the sake of Israel’s future, Reform must not be permitted to impose itself, by force or guile, upon the Holy Land.

LOST: ONE CANAL E G Y P T ’S seizure of the Suez Canal is the culminating result of the disastrous Middle East policy pursued by the Western powers — a policy whose roots can be traced to Britain’s default on the Balfour Declaration in the days of the Palestine Mandate. This action by Egypt transfers the key to the crossroads of the world from the hands of Britain and France to the grasp of Soviet Russia, Egypt’s present master. For the first time in modern history, exclusive control of the eastern Mediterranean and the main route to the Orient has been lost to the Western world. Incalculable results can flow from this turn of events. The reaction of the Western powers, particularly Britain and France, to Nasser’s confiscation of the Suez Canal Company, leaves no room for doubt as to the seriousness of this threat. It is not the technical legality of Egypt’s action which concerns these nations but thè potential barring of the Canal to their vessels. Britain, especially, is insistent that no situation shall be permitted in which its lifeline to the East may be severed, and accordingly demands that ÌÌ ìÌH ÌÙ I ll1 1 operation of the Suez- Canal be in no case subject to Egyptian * control. This position, which is supported by the United States, Failure stands in pointed contrast to the total failure to take action against fa Act Egypt’s long-standing blockading of the Canal against Israel’s ships and against the ships of any other nation bound for Israel with various categories of cargo. Western compliance with this blockade has Sept.-0ct.f 1956

proven to be a two-edged sword, one edge of which will cut no less deeply than the other. Twice in our generation has the world failed to see in time the fallacy of catering to aggression. Despite the lesson of Hitler, Britain, and subsequently the United States, became enmeshed in a policy of serving the ambitions of Arab politicians. There was a time when Arab opposition to fulfillment of the Balfour Declaration, originally confined to a relative handful, could have been disposed of with relative e a s e w i t h unlimited benefits to all concerned. But, in the interest of cultivating Arab nationalism, an opposite policy was pursued, to the detriment of all concerned. There was a time when the Arab onslaught on Israel could have been checked, again to the Fatal benefit of all — but, lest Arab leaders be antagonized, a different Fallacy course was chosen, and all suffered thereby. And throughout the subsequent years, means might have been found to compel the Arab nations to desist from their attack upon Israel and to make peace — but this, too, so needful and advantageous to all, was sacrificed to a policy of catering to ambitious figures who grew only more rapacious under this treatment. Inevitably, rapacity turned to extortion, implemented by an alliance with the very force against which the Arab world was to have been the bulwark. The failure to provide a deterrent through the strengthening of Israel gave incentive to unlimited blackmail, resistance to which brought a drastic recourse — seizure of the Suez Canal. Let there be no illusion as to the present situation. The Arab leaders are now completely dependent upon Soviet power for their personal survival. Because this dependence is purely military and political, because the Arab nations, and particularly Egypt, have far less bargaining power, both strategic and economic, with Russia than with the West, their subjection to Soviet dictates is all the greater. In the light of this, the strengthening of Israel as the one remaining state upon which Western democracy can count in the Near East becomes a matter of critical urgency to the United States and its allies as to Israel itself. XJENCE it is to be expected that our Government will now belatedly lower the bars to provision of defensive arms to Israel. Postponement of this action has proven to be a fateful blunder, contributing directly to the loss of the Suez Canal. Any further equivocation as to support of Israel invites a crowning disaster.

JEWISH LIFE

B alance S heet of a D ecade By EUGENE DUSCHINSKY "There is a hope of tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease, though the rock thereof wax old in the earth and the stock thereof die in the ground, yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.” (Job 14.7— 9)

tenth anniversary of To understand these ten years in their proper historical perspective is a hopeful experience. It is like a healthy awakening after a critical coma of a mortally wounded patient whose very life was in jeopardy after cruel bloodletting, the next of kin watching with worry and anxiety whether the organism of their loved one shall prove sufficiently strong to emerge victorious. These past ten years will go down in Jewish history as the post-Hitler decade. In the loss of one-third of world Jewry, Orthodoxy was the great est loser. It lost almost two-thirds of its followers, a quantitative, irreplace able damage. The catastrophe went even deeper qualitatively, for orthodox Jewry lost its greatest centers, spiritual strongholds of centuries past. W ith hundreds of thousands of our brethren in DP camps, the realization came to us in 1946 that there was no hope for the counted remnant to re establish a sprouting Jewish life in the countries of Eastern Europe upon which the silence of a cemetery des cended. Palestine was a bargaining JEW ISH

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point of great Powers disputing the admission of a relative handful ot one hundred thousand Jews. The free coun tries of the Western world had not yet opened their doors for a large-scale refugee immigration. Today those problems belong to a past era. Providence gave the answers to the question of religious Jewish future, and the eternal miraculous powers of regeneration of our faith and nation went on record in history. Tor ah-true Judaism has emerged from the depths of misfortune as a vital, rejuvenated, potent force. As so often in history, it proved again the provi dential divine plan of "Neytzach Yisrael,” overcame the almost insur mountable difficulties, adapted itself to new and never precedented condi tions, brought forth creative powers and a proud, hopeful young generation. J H E EXPLOSION of the Hiroshima bomb put an obvious and awaken ing end to a stage in religion-science relations which prevailed for almost two centuries. Matter was dethroned. Research revealed that human science with all its achievements had failed to penetrate the ultimate mysteries of existence and the more new answers it brought the more new and deeper question marks it has to face. The erstwhile scientist’s self-satis fied atheism was characterized by the 9

late T. G. Masaryk’s satirical crushing summary: "I push a button, there is light, therefore there is no G-d”. To day he may rather be viewed in the light of the soothsayer in the Ashmodai legend, who, sitting upon a stone telling fortunes for a mere pittance, does not know that a treasure is buried under the very stone on which he sits. Our generation sees with ever-growing clarity that the realm of religious faith transcends the boundaries of technol ogy, and that it is not more "scientific” to be an atheist than to be a believer, not more "up-to-date” to be "modern” than to be devout and religious. A telling result of this ideological revolu tion is the marked increase of young orthodox Jewish academicians on all campuses. The change in physical and technical science was paralleled in the more practical field of sociology. An ever-

increasing emphasis is put on the un derstanding of the individual’s soul and mind and of the motives of his behavior. Historical materialism, apart from not having held ground in its proper aspect of national and interna tional economics, has forfeited the claim of bringing the salvation or even solution of "the Jewish problem.” Anti-Semitic outrages, a series of pog roms, deportations, suppression of Jew ish education behind the Iron Curtain, in countries which claim to follow the Marxist teachings, caused a bitter sobering up for many a soul-searching Jew. Ten years after World W ar II no Jew would give credence to slogans like those that were beamed over the Red Army radio to Jews languishing under the Nazi yoke: "Messiah will come, not the dead one, but the red one.”

Ideological Climate T E N years ago there was a hovering suffering Israel was exposed, and the * doubt in the minds of thousands, great miracle of the fulfillment of the bitter and burning, concerning the dream of centuries in the Holy Land chosenness of the Jewish people and could be viewed by no religious Jew its providential role, after the slaugh as anything short of a confirmation, ter of millions of our most devout. by an act of Providence, manifested in The rebirth of Jewish nationhood, the history, of the eternal validity of the emergence of the State of Israel was Creator’s plan for His people. On a close analysis of what took a confirmation of the Prophetic prom ise: the Almighty •shall not forsake place within the Jewish world and His people . . . it has pleased H im to how, under Providence, orthodox Jewry met the greatest of historical chal make you His people. The ideological climate of the past lenges, we find some fundamental de decade in the free world has thus been velopments. The most characteristic of far from inimical to religion in general these is the gradual liquidation of small and to Jewish Orthodoxy in particular. centers and the concentration of Jews, Faith found itself strengthened by a and particularly orthodox Jews, in fundamental change of thinking in the great popular and ethnic masses. atomic age; the luring sweetness of "Exotic” Jewries in the Orient, in false prophets and their universal pan countries like Yemen, Persia, India, acea for the ills of mankind and of China, Ethiopia, have been absorbed 10

JEWISH LIFE

in the State of Israel, together with the remnants of Bulgarian and Yugoslav ian Jewry. W ith the impact of recent events in the North African countries no spiritual perpetuation can be ex pected there! In European countries oc cupied by Hitler during the W ar only a shadow exists of moribund Jewish communities marked by the extremely small number of children. Of the approximately ten million Jews in the free world today one mil lion and a half live in Israel, seven million in the Americas, over half a million in the British Commonwealth. The internal and spiritual life of the "am olam,” of the world-people, centers today around two major and two minor centers of importance: Israel, the United States of America, Great Brit ain and South America. The importance of this situation will be understood even more if we take into consideration that a very close and manifold interchange exists between these centers of Jewish con temporary life. Israel holds a para mount primacy in the hearts of uni versal Jewry; the North American and British communities find their relations very naturally fostered by the common English language and cultural pattern, whereas the closeness of the two Amer icas makes for an alert awareness and understanding of each other’s prob lems. T H E SECOND important feature in ,L recent developments in Jewish life is that of "metropolization.” About three out of four Jews today live not only an urban—as opposed to rural— life, but they live in cities of over a million population each. Apart from the United States, this applies to Eng land, France, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Argentine, Brazil, Uruguay, Sept.-Oct., 1956

Belgium, Holland, Italy, Austria with equal validity. In these great cities Jews tend to live in distinctly Jewish neighbor hoods. In the course of internal migra tions from areas where the original immigrants settled in the 1890’s to more spacious and more comfortable new sections, or even with the "exodus to suburbia,” (this concomitant of town-planning in the age of aerial and atomic warfare) the truth still is that Jews live in Jewish neighborhoods. From Whitechapel through Golders Green to Edgware (in London), from the Lower East side through the Bronx and Brooklyn to Long Island and West chester County (in New York), from Doornfontein through Berea to Lower Houghton (in Johannesburg), the pic ture is the same: wherever Jews move they move into neighborhoods that are already, or soon become, distinctly Jewish. People know their neighbors. Socially they live in small units. They live according to similar patterns, they find self-expression in the same insti tutions. The transfer from the East European "shtetl” to the suburb in the English-speaking metropolis has, after all, left the concept of the Jewish ethnical-cultural-religious social formu la intact. T H E REAL challenge is to be sought 4 in the transfer from the European system of State-controlled, State-sub sidized "Kehillah” to the Western system of separation of the Church from the State, in which the institu tions of Judaism have to rely entirely on voluntary participation, on selfimposed submission to spontaneously accepted authority and religious com munal discipline. In the Diaspora the new era brought a complete lack of Government or State assistance and control in contrast to the conditions 11

that prevailed in most countries of Europe. At the same time, in Israel, Judaism acquired the status of an official Religion of the State, where the organization of religious councils, the jurisdiction of the rabbinical courts are part and parcel of the functioning of the State.. This was a decade of "Kibbutz Galuyoth” in more than one sense. While sociologically the Jewish com munity of the Western metropolitan suburb may be considered a latter-day metamorphosis of the erstwhile Euro pean "shtetl,” it does not resemblé it geographically. It is not isolated. The professor of the religious university can reach the Lithuanian Rosh Yeshivah by a local telephone call, the "Kultur-orthodox” rabbi of the Ger man school adorned with academical degrees may live within one block from the Russian or Hungarian Chassidic "Rebbe”. Orthodox Jews originating from different backgrounds, different tradi tions, adhering to Halochic usages sometimes varying from norms of regions other than their own, meet in these cities; the basic unity underly ing their different traditions is revealed to them, they exchange experiences, join in the common struggle for the establishment of vital institutions. From this geographical merger there develops a process of amalgamation of traditions, with the result of a reborn Orthodoxy containing the best essential elements crystallized throughout the centuries, contributed by all channels of valid, relevant Torah-true living.

TH ER E WAS a precedent for similar developments in many, communi ties of Italy, Turkey, the Balkans and Egypt with the arrival in those coun tries of the refugees from Spain; Padua, Venice, Constantinople, Saloniki of the 16th Century of the common era are the examples. W ithin a relatively short time the older, "indigenous” Italian and Romaniote communities merged with the more recently immigrated "Sephardim Tehorim.” This merger gave birth to movements like that of the Ari and produced universally ac cepted unifying Halochic works like the Shulchon Oruch. All the aforementioned develop ments of our past decade opened up new possibilities in the most vital fields of Jewish living. Religious Jew ry responded to the challenge and made full use of the new opportunities. The most courageous venture was the foun dation of suitable institutions and forms of Jewish education. The Jew ish Day School is the successor of the full-time European "cheder,” but its curriculum answers all the require ments of the modern West. The Lag Baomer hikes of Eastern European small town children found their "gilgul” in the American summer camp. Institutions of advanced learn ing, mesivtoth, kolelim, colleges and universities are the manifold expres sions of the indomitable will of pres ent-day Orthodoxy to assure its own future. Such institutions would never have come within the reach of con temporary Jews had they lived in smaller and dispersed centers.

Progress in Kashruth K NOTHER amazing growth is that of Kashruth. The presence in con centrated areas of great numbers of 12

kosher food-purchasers made the pro duction and marketing of all types of merchandise on a giant scale possible. JEWISH LIFE

The Talmudic teaching that for Jewry tested, universally recognized religious in Dispersion the family table takes authority of "mishnah berurah va halthe place of the altar, has acquired a ochah berurah bemokom echod.” new meaning in the light of the fact that over 80 per cent of Jews in Eng land, and over 90 per cent of Jews in RELIGIOUS JEWS on the universal level are bound to each other by Israel have officially notified the food rationing authorities, during the past their concern for Israel. A variety of decade, of their wish to be supplied attitudes exists towards the present with kosher meat. The flourishing of conduct of the affairs in the State of the kosher-food industry in this coun Israel: from the ardently Zionist re try is a similar example. It is by the ligious laborites, through the critically Kashruth of their homes — no matter viewing non-Zionist supporters of the how divergent the standards -IB that State to those handful of indignants millions of Jews identify themselves who would 'refuse recognition” to the with their faith and way of life. State of Israel as a Jewish state of In the metropolis and its suburbs their dreams. Nevertheless, Israel is the Jewish occupational pattern under for all religious Jews the Holy Land, went changes, too. The number of a matter of the heart. Nothing proves those occupied with small distributive this better than the very vehemence of commerce is dimishing, while more the often aberrational reactions of the and more Jews enter the professions, most vociferous extremists. Only some industries and the ranks of white- thing very close to ones heart can un collar workers. W ith the gradual in leash such vehemence of reactions. troduction of the five-day-week in For the non-religious inhabitants of most parts of the Western world, Israel, or for the non-religious friend Sabbath observance demands fewer of Israel abroad, the Jewish State may material sacrifices of the individual be a scene of social experiment, the religious Jew. dramatic battleground of national The voluntary identification of mil struggle. For the religious Jew it is, lions of Jews in the free countries, in addition, "the Land which G-d the meeting and gradual merger of seeketh from the beginning of the several regional traditions, the growth year even unto the end of the year.” of an extensive educational system and Religious Jewry will never fail Israel the spiritual closeness of contact be and' shall be united by its anxious care tween the main centers of Jewish and personal stake in the Land which life augur well for the emergence in is inseparable from the fabric of the not too distant future of uncon religious life. Roots Grow Strong R OOKING BACK on the main de velopments of orthodox Jewish life in the post-Hitler era is a hopeful experience. W e survived the worst tragedy with wounds that no human expression can depict. But orthodox Sept.-Oct., 1956

Jewry is alive and has survived the crisis in an epoch when the turn of mankinds mind demolished the arti ficial walls erected between the human intellect and the "labor of the heart”: prayer and the service of the Almighty; 13

in an epoch when enemies of the "freedom of those who occupy them selves* with the Law” unmasked them selves as enemies of human freedom and of Jewish continunity; in an epoch when the splendor of Israel reborn shines with healing rays, bringing comfort and hope to Israel dispersed. A delegation of American rabbis has just brought back the message of Jewry in the Soviet Union, that branch separated, but never severed from our hearts. After four decades of antireligious propaganda, of anti-Jewish persecutions, there are still Jews, devout and blessed with an indomitable faith,

"knees that never bowed to the Baal,” in spite of temptation, under condi tions close to martyrdom. " T H E R E IS a hope for the tree of Judaism, even if it be cut down, it will sprout again.” The history of the post-Hitler decade has proved it. The roots of World Jewry are growing strong in the soil of the Holy Land, its branches in the free world are budding through the scent of the living waters of Torah, facing with assurance a future of growth, of strength and hope.

AN ADMONITION "Yom Kippur redeems one from the sins between man and G-d, but not from the sins of man against his fellow man." This is an admonition not to harvest human dealings wth pious rationaliza tions. Talmud Yoma, 85b

AS A REMEMBRANCE Rabbi Abahu said "Why do w e blow with a ram's horn? Be cause the Holy One, Blessed Be He said 'Blow with a ram's horn so that I might be reminded of the sacrifice of Isaac the son of Abraham, and I will consider it a s though you yourself were prepared for an act of self-sacrifice oh my behalf'." G-d expects personal submission, not a gift of material resources. Talmud, Rosh Hashonah, 16a

PLEA "Remember us for life, O King who delightest in life, inscribe us in the book of life for thy sake, O living G-d." W e should live not only for ourselves, but also to please G-d; to do, and live by his commands. High Holy Days Machzor 14

JEWISH LIFE

T h e T ree o f Life By JOSEPH K AM IN ETSK Y

^*HAT the past decade of Jewish and understanding the values and life on this continent has been a ideals of Judaism. most intensive one is a well established Naturally, of all the Jewish educa fact. The concept of "Churban u’Vin- tional endeavors sponsored and de yan” (destruction followed by rebuild veloped in the last decade, the most ing) is an age-old one among our dynamic and prolific one has been the people; and we have seen this dynamic growth of the Day School movement. cycle at work on our own shores dur Nevertheless, other forms of Jewish ing the past ten years with a vigor education have made tremendous that is astounding and inspiring to all strides as well. While the Talmud but the cynics and the prophets of Torah (the afternoon supplementary doom. This point need not be labored school) has become almost purely a nor even elaborated for those who congregational venture, veering away have been in or watched the main from the c o m m u n i t y - c o n t r o l l e d , streams of Jewish life. central institution, its program has It is most encouraging, however, that improved in content and its overall this rebirth has expressed itself, to organization has become a more a great extent, in basic and realistic stable one. Adult Jewish educational terms. I refer to the emphasis — programs, sponsored by many congre dynamic and ever-increasing — placed gations and various other groups, have upon Jewish education during the past also grown in popularity during the decade by American Jewry. past decade, as have the pre-school Studies on suburbia, for instance— forms: the nursery and kindergarten. easily one of the most exciting de American Jewry has been hard at velopments of our era — have indi work building for itself a strong edu cated that those moving to the new cational ladder. areas on the periphery and outskirts To be sure, much: more has yet of the big cities have put as their to be done to restore the Talmud primary objective for the new life Torah to its "pristine strength” of a they hope to build for themselves: an few decades ago. Orthodox Jewry still effective system of religious education does not have any effective central for their children. The community-at- agency which concerns itself with the large, its agencies and organizations, Talmud Torah per se. This process is too, seem to have become convinced still on the agenda of the national at long last that if the effective and orthodox bodies and will come to pass meaningful rebuilding of Jewish life sooner or later. Yet, Jewish education, is to take place in this country then generally considered, has been on a we must be concerned with giving definite upgrade during the past few our children a proper start in knowing years. Sept.-Oct., 1956

The Hebrew Academy of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, one of several hundred Day Schools established on the American scene during the past decade.

detailed prognosis regarding the overall picture of Jewish education in the next decade, however. In an age of specialization, one can hope to concentrate on but one field of en deavor, which in itself has so many ramifications. Having spent the past decade working intensively in the field of Day School education, the writer will therefore restrict himself to an attempt to depict "the shape of things to come” in this pioneering field. Reference has already been made to "suburbia.” The picturesque areas on the fringes of the larger cities are being invaded by Jews of all classes who want a countrified atmosphere in which to live. New communities are being set up in these suburbs and it is natural for the men of vision in charge of our Day Schools to think in terms of building intensive Jewish schools 16

for these people who are making a new start in life, so to speak. Already there are signs of many Day Schools opening branches in the suburbs of the large cities. Some schools, as a matter of fact, are moving their entire school plants to these new areas where there is room to build and to expand. Because Day Schools are conscious of the many activities and facilities their crowded programs can not give their children, they are most eager for "lebensraum”^ g for addi tional play space. and room to grow. They are desirous, too, of capitalizing on the expressed wish for religious education stressed by these people. Furthermore, the desire to move into the less thickly populated areas strikes many people — among them, naturally, many informed and inten sive Jews, enthusiasts of the Day School whose children have attended JEWISH LIFE

such schools in town. Many of the suburbanites in this category are, there fore, interested in founding Day Schools for their children—more often than not in connection with the new orthodox synagogues which are sprout ing up in these areas. ^ H IS is in itself a trend which will, no doubt, develop in the years to come — in which a small orthodox synagogue will have a Day School attached to it. The Day School is thus destined, in some measure, to go through the same cycle which charac terized the history and destiny of the old communal Talmud Torah. It will become more and more a congrega tional project rather than a communal one — certainly in suburbia, and per haps on a more general scale as well. The large Day Schools in the cities proper will, grow not only horizontally through the sponsoring of branches in the suburbs, however, but will also show more vertical growth. W e in the Day School movement are now in the secondary stage of development lit erally. The many schools which have prospered during the past decade have by now completed their elementary courses of study and are building high schools, Mesivtoth. A second, more

significant and enduring layer of Jew ish learning is thus being added to the strong foundations we have built. The very fact that these divisions are frankly designated by their original Hebrew name of Mesivta rather than by some sort of euphuism such as Secondary Day School, or the like, is indicative of the trend towards the deepening of the wellsprings of Jew ish education which this inspiring step signifies. As a matter of fact, in a number of key communities, there are even in dications that the system of Day School education will not stop with the end of the twelfth grade. This is true especially of the Beth Jacob schools and other all-day schools which have special divisions for girls on the high school level. The young men can go to the higher Yeshivoth all over the country. The young women, however, have few places to which they can turn for additional learning. More over, orthodox parents are reluctant to send their daughters away to study. Hence, there is good reason for us to expect that there will be a number of teacher-training institutions for girls in the future sponsored by our Yeshivoth Ketanoth and Beth Jacob schools in the larger cities.

Teacher Training j |L L OF W HICH brings us to an area in which there will be tre mendous stirrings in the next decade: the training of teachers for our Day Schools. Like all other school systems in this country, the Day School has been faced with the problem of the shortage of trained personnel. Not that the actual growth of the move ment has been stunted to any appreci able extent by this shortage. ComSept.-Oct., 1956

munities have not been deterred from starting Day Schools because of lack of personnel. In the estimation of the community’s earnest leadership, the Day School represented a vital neces sity for the city’s Torah growth, and ways and means—sometimes make shift — were found to form new schools and to keep the existing ones going. There are, however, already evident 17

many factors in American Jewish life which will tend to mitigate this tre mendous problem and perhaps help solve it. Graduates of our Yeshivoth, for one reason or another, are not going into the active rabbinate. They are tremendously inspired by the Day School movement and are turning more and more to consideration of administrative and teaching positions in Yeshivoth Ketanoth as careers for themselves, especially if many of these institutions will open Mesivtoth. One can already sense an emergent new role for the American 'Yeshivah Bochur” — to dedicate himself to the actual, direct, teaching of Torah to the next generation. The natural out let for the realization of this aim will be direct association in one form or

another with the Day School move ment. It is to be hoped only that the higher Yeshivoth will recognize the necessity of providing adequate train ing for these men to prepare them for the tasks which will face them. In the "inner life” of our Yeshivoth Ketanoth, there has been apparent for years a trend towards greater emphasis on content. Methods of teaching in our Yeshivoth Ketanoth vary greatly. There are a number of different types of Day Schools on the American scene. But one thing these schools have in com mon, and that is: intensive, regular and continuous concentration on the facts and attitudes which are to be transmitted to the pupils. To achieve these ends, first emphasis has been upon the basic Holy Texts; and this

Day School pupils learn the blessing of the lulov in the school's succah.

JEWISH LIFE

emphasis will not diminish, but rather increase in the years to come, we feel. There is, however, a great need for supplementary teaching materials to make the Day Schools program broader in scope and more exactly geared to the needs of all its pupils. Some work has been done in the pre paration of new texts and workbooks specifically written for the Day School in the past decade. In the years to come, we will see more creative acti vity in this entire area of texts — not only for the Hebrew department, but also for the general studies section of our Day Schools.

Many of these texts, interestingly enough, will contain special sections for parent participation in the studies of their offspring. Special texts in adult education, written expressly for the parents of our Day School pupils, are sure to make their debut in the years to come. These parents have al ready indicated a real desire "to keep up with Junior,” and a whole series of parent education pamphlets and texts, as well as specially organized courses of study, are silre to emerge as a new field of Jewish educational endeavor in the creative years ahead of us.

Future Trends j^ L L of these vital processes of in tensification and development will be highlighted during the coming de cade. At the same time, the actual nu merical growth of Day Schools in communities all over the country will continue—not only through the efforts of orthodox Jews, but also by other groups within American Jewry as well. The Conservatives have been commit ted to the Day School for several years and have already built a number of schools around the country. Zion ists as well have begun to talk in terms of all-day schools. The Yiddishists have a few schools in the New York area and a growing number in Canada. All this activity will go on simultan eously with the deeper forms of con centration of Yeshivah education no ted above. These signs of growth are in the air and one does not have to be a prophet to see them coming. W ith faith and hard work, they will come to pass. In one realm of Yeshivah work, however, many people have expressed Sept.-Oct., 1956

a dream and a hope, about which it is hard to prognosticate; and that is the formation of some over-all body to help Yeshivoth Ketanoth meet their ever-increasing budgets. W heth er the next decade will see the forma tion of a central, well-organized Fed eration of Yeshivoth of some kind is difficult to say. Individual Yeshivoth have drawn • to themselves staunch supporters who are willing to do anything for their particular institution. This effort takes more of their time, energy and means than they really can afford to give. Yeshivah education is popular. But in every community there are only a few who are ready and willing to give their all to it. Perhaps it is unfair, therefore, to expect these tired, over worked individuals to divert their en ergies from their own struggling in stitutions and think in terms of a general, central, fund-raising effort for all the Yeshivoth in the country. Those individuals, on the other hand, who have an overall, broader perspective on the situatiop, are har19

ried and subject to pressures from in numerable sources. Will they have the time and the energy and the necessary peace of mind to think in terms of such an overall effort? Will the indi vidual institutions rise to the occasion and join in a mutually sponsored drive? These are questions hard to answer. It may take more than a decade to achieve such a sense of unity on the part of the "Yeshivische velt”—those whose primary interest is Yeshivah education. ^ H IS PROGNOSIS has concentrated on "binyon”—on further building. This does not mean that there will not be "churbon”—some destruction —in the process. There will be a num ber of Day Schools which will fold up. Only the fittest will survive-—those which have been or will be conceived with understanding and determination and will be blessed with dedicated

staffs and workers. There are many difficulties, other than financial which Yeshivoth now face* and additional hurdles will appear as we march to wards progress. All this is inevitable. The tasks which face those who want to build Yeshivoth and those who want to develop better Yeshivoth are numerous, indeed. Progress is possible, however, it is our deep contention, when we concentrate on the building process, even while girding ourselves for the pitfalls which are sure to come. In essence, we would say in sum mation that the last decade has been the period of "wild growth” for the Yeshivah Ketanah movement. The next decade will be devoted to con solidation—invigorating the "tree of life,” feeding it well and making the strong plants grow larger, even while pruning the unhealthy offshoots and redirecting their growth. "It is a tree of life to them that grasp it!”

JEWISH LIFE

Yu¿ oslavia R evisited By MOSHE RECENT business trip to Yugo slavia afforded me my first glimpse behind the Iron Curtain. As our DC3 winged across Europe, I wondered what I would find. W hat had become of the once prosperous Jewish com munity of Yugoslavia? W hat was it like to live as a Jew in a "Peoples Republic”? The first thing which struck me up on arrival was the low living standard of Jews and non-Jews alike. Though daily necessities are cheap, people ap pear shabbily dressed, faces are drawn, eyes lustreless. I was told that the sal ary of an office girl does not exceed 6,000-8,000" dinars per month, or about $5.00 per week. An executive in a state enterprise may earn as much as $12.00 per week. Men in very high positions draw weekly salaries of no more than $15.00. Cameras, type writers or bicycles are out of the reach of most people. Cars—even the cheap German Volkswagen—are a luxury that only very few can afford. A worker’s lunch in one of the primitive cafeterias in the city often consists of no more than dry bread and yogurt (a kind of sour milk) supplemented by a dish of beans for dinner. A de cent pair of shoes costs the equivalent of one to two months wages. Farmers, too, feel the restrictions imposed by the new regime, although outwardly they seem little changed. They still come to town in their typi cal Serbian, Bosnian or Macedonian costumes, their milk cans suspended from a yoke across their shoulders. Sept.-Oct., 1956

Country girls still dress in the same long, high-necked dresses in lively colors which their mothers and grand mothers wpre some fifty years back. But land holdings have been restricted to ten acres each, and farmers are resentful. JJO W EV ER, in a way, conditions are better than they were five years ago. Then Yugoslavia was vir tually a Russian satellite and consu mer goods were even scarcer than they are today. All of the country’s production went to Russia and to buy even a shoelace was a major operation. Now the economic and political situ ation is slightly more relaxed. I was told that there is a secret police but it was not evident in any form. Never theless people are wary and do not talk freely to strangers. I could not help but feel that most of those I met were afraid. During my stay, I avoided discuss ing any political subjects, but the way people looked at me and spoke to me was significant. The Serbians were al ways a good-natured people and they still are today. They are honest, hard working, polite and hospitable. As on my previous visits, I was everywhere received with the traditional cup of delicious Turkish coffee, a Brazilian style demi-tasse. Nowhere did I ex perience any kind of hostility. The feeling conveyed to me was rather an attitude of: we once lived the way you are living now. W e hope to live that way again. 21

A w eekday Minchah service in the city of Zagreb, Jewish population 1,300.

As in all Iron Curtain countries, Yugoslavia has an "official version” of what conditions are or should be and it is exceedingly difficult to penetrate the propoganda screen. This is equally true for the life of the Jewish com munity in Yugoslavia. W hat I saw of it does not jibe with some of the glowing reports which have occasion ally appeared in the Anglo-Jewish press in this country and in Great Britain. p R IO R to World W ar II, Yugoslavia * had 110 well organized Jewish com munities with about 80,000 members. W hen the Nazi holocaust had passed, only 14,000 were left. The communi22

ty’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Isaac Alcalay, had fled to the TJnetid States. Most private or communal property was destroyed. There was little left of the old leadership or the old organi zational framework. W ith the end of World War II, the American Jewish Joint Distribu tion Committee moved in and did a splendid job of rehabilitation. A home for the aged was established at Zagreb and efforts were made to collect some of the Jewish art treasures dispersed by the Nazis. At the same time, a strong movement for mass emigration to Israel set in. By the end of 1949, about 7,000 Jews had departed for Israel and less than 10,000 Jews were JEWISH LIFE

left in all of Yugoslavia. W hat is the situation of this remnant of Israel? What is their status? What are their hopes for the future? Officially, there is no Antisemitism in Yugoslavia. A law, promulgated in 1945, prohibits all "national, racial or religious hatred and intolerance/’ In addition, Yugoslavia’s break with the Soviet Union in the summer of 1948 prevented the spread of the anti-Zion ist or anti-"Jewish nationalism” cam paign to which the Jews of the USSR were subjected. Tito himself, on the occasion of his visit to Great Britain, emphasized Yugoslavia’s policy of freedom and equality for all citizens. His own friend and old comrade in arms, Moshe Pi jade, President of the Federal National Assembly and one of the most influential people in the country, is of Jewish descent. Other Jews hold important positions in the professions, in government at various universities, and in the army. The Federation of Jewish Communities of Yugoslavia, a new unified body set up after World W ar II, enjoys full "cultural autonomy.” Does this mean, as one visitor from Great Britain concluded, that Yugo slavia should be the "happiest state for any Jewish citizen in Europe?” The few glimpses of Jewish life which I had during my stay in the country do not substantiate this optimism. Friday night, I made my way to the old Sephardi Synagogue in Belgrade. This is the only day on which services are held, but even so we did not have a .minyon. Eight el derly men were all but lost, in the large building which has remained virtually unchanged, although the up per floors haVe been converted into apartments. The children of the occu pants, apparently non-Jewish, played Sept.-Oct., 1956

unconcerned in the yard. How differ ent was this picture from the one I remembered trom my last visit in 1937! To my knowledge, there is no rabbi or shochet left in Yugoslavia. There is no kosher food. Neither is there, to my knowledge, any form of religious education. There is no Jew ish press. Of the estimated 7,000 Jews living in Yugoslavia today, only about 2,00J are registered with the Federation of Jewish Communities. The reason for that lies probably in the fact that any form of religious affiliation may prove a handicap to career or political ad vancement in a Communist state. And even those who maintain a form of Jewish self-identification may never appear in the synagogue. Under Com munist ideology, political belief and party discipline inhibit attendance at any religious rite whatsoever. "Cul tural” functions, such as an occasional Purim or Chanukah assembly, are slightly better attended. Such meetings may draw a few hundred people, but the topics are mainly secular and there are few young people in the audience. ■JHE JEWS of Yugoslavia, like the * rest of their countrymen, have only a limited and mainly "official” contact with the outside world. No foreign magazines and hardly any newspapers come in from abroad. Newsstands show only Serbian language papers and books, with the exception of a few outdated titles in French, German or Spanish. Under these conditions, Jews are anxious for news from the outside, especially from the two Jew ish centers: the United States and Israel. I believe that many of them would like to emigrate, but most of those who had relatives abroad are al ready gone and without such a contact, emigration is virtually impossible. 23

Behind the Iron Curtain, the syna gogue is often the only place where people will talk freely to a stranger. I have met Jews in business places and Government offices, but matters of Jewish concern have never been a topic of conversation. The whole at

mosphere is not conducive to such con versations. While appointments are relatively easy to get, every visitor is handled by two or even three men. No official sees anyone alone and there are no informal meetings on the out side.

The oldest woman member of the Jewish community of Zagreb, Yugoslavia. 24

JEWISH LIFE

To understand the position of these officials, one must remember that in Yugoslavia—as in other Communist countries—-the entire economy is in the hands of the state, although in dividual economic functions are dele gated to separate enterprises which might even compete with each other. Thèse, state enterprises place strong emphasis on international trade to cover the needs of the country and its military expenditures. They generally work efficiently under an intelligent leadership, but no one employee is given too much power. He remains conscious of being a cog placed pre cariously in a complicated machine. However, within the four walls of the Synagogue, I found some people who were inclined to trust me and to express criticism of present conditions. There was the retired Turkish Jew, a former state employee, whose pension did not amount to more than 3,000 dinars, about $10.00 per month. There were others, who complained about long working hours, high rents, the nearly impossible task of making ends meet. But, above all, there was the concern for the future of Jewish life in Yugoslavia. R E SPIT E official reports on "vigor ous community activities” the out look is not very hopeful. Today, at tendance at services or at the small community centers is limited to elderly men and women who are apt to live in their memories of the past—of the days before the Second or even the First World W ar when Slovenia, Cro atia and Bosnia-Herzegovina belonged to the Austrian Empire and Serbia was an independent state. Once these Jews are gone there may be nothing left. There are three causes for this note of pessimism: the general poverty of the community, which is part of the Sept.-Oct., 1956

over-all low standard of living; the new leadership, which is more inter ested in emphasizing political affilia tions than in the reconstruction of their religious traditions; and, above all, the lack of interest among Jewish youth. A constant indoctrination with Socialist and Communist theories on the one hand, and lack of any religious education on the other, has estranged most young people from their Jewish heritage. Although the Communist Party is not as powerful as in the Soviet satellites ( not a single person showed in any way that he was a Com munist and many government workers are not) the pressure on the new gén ération is very strong. Communist youth clubs are attractive and dynamic, and in the absence of any Jewish youth movement, boys and girls fall under the spell of the Communist leaders. "Cultural integration” is a powerful slogan and the Jewish community has nothing to counteract it. Of course, under these conditions, intermarriage, too, is increasing. YUGOSLAVIA differs from the So viet satellites in many respects and, in fact, relations with Iron Curtain countries are not exactly cordial. Though Tito continues to remain on the fence, I was told repeatedly in Belgrade that the man in the street would not like to see the Russians back. W ith American aid, Tito should be able to keep out of the paws of the bear. However, the outlook for Yugoslav Jewry is similar to the prospects of Jewish communities in other Iron Curtain countries. Without Jewish education Jewish youth is lost to Com munist indoctrination, and without the new generation the chances for the future are very dim indeed. 25

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Sukkah on display at 33 W est 42nd Street, N.Y.G. Room 642 W e also have plastic Sukkah decorations for your own home built Sukkah W rite for brochure.

S’CHACH: We will also supply you with 70 bam boo sticks 1 inch in diameter by 6 feet long to cover entire Sukkah. A D D IT IO N A L $14.00

Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America 305 Broadway New York 7, N. Y. Gentlemen: □ Please ship me one Packaged Sukkah designed by the Spero Foundation. Check for the amount of $98 is enclosed. □ I also want 70 bamboo sticks which will.cover entire Sukkah, and I am enclosing an additional $1*4.00. O Please send brochure on Sukkah decorations. Name

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I City and State 26

JEWISH LIFE

T h e S h o far By A R Y E H N E W M A N J H E DISTINCTIVE observance of Rosh Hashonah is that of blowing the Shofar. In the popular imagination Rosh Hashonah means the Shofar. The children look forward to its thrilling blasts, Jews everywhere pack the syna gogue silent and tense at the solemn moment of its sounding. From the point of view of that which is explicitely written in the Torah, Rosh Hashotiah is indeed characterized by this one specific mitzvah over and above the precepts applicable to all festivals, and it is described quite prosaically in the Torah as being a yom teruah, "day for the blowing of trumpets” which falls "on the. first day of the seventh month”. That is all that is stated there, no mention even of the New Year, commemorating the day of creation on which all human beings are judged. It is this aspect as a day of the sounding of the Shofar which has remained its most distinctive. But it is a long road from the bare cryptic mention of the Shofar rite in the Torah to the precise regulations governing its implementation and in suring its uniform, solemn and appro priate character in all the scattered congregations of Israel throughout the ages. Without the Torah Shebeal Peh, the Oral Law handed down to Moses, and the enactments of our Sages re corded for us in the Mishnah, Gemora and final formulation in the great codifications of our religious laws, we would be completely in the dark about the manner of execution of the rite, the size and shape of the Shofar, its composition and the number of blasts. As a result of these precise regulations Sept.-Oct., 1956

Jews all over the world take the same Shofar, sound it in accordance with ancient precedent and with only the slightest of variations. That is why a study of our Torah in its widest sense is essential in order to be a full Jew. Without it our Jewishness is stunted and often deformed. J^ET US summarize here very briefly the basic principles governing the shofar observance, is it to be heard or blown? The essential part of the rite lies in hearing the blast and the man who blows with his ears stuffed up with wax or cotton-wool has failed to perform his duty. As we only too well know, the thousands of worship pers in the synagogue who hear the Shofar but do not blow it have per formed the duty required to them. The manner of execution presents no par ticular difficulty but it is essential that the mouth come in contact with the Shofar mouth, with no foreign body intervening. The sound produced must be clear and no other element must spoil the purity of the tone. An echo of the Shofar blast or the sound emerging from a. deep, pit where the Shofar is being blown do not satisfy the requirements of the Torah. This incidentally serves as one of the rea sons advanced for disqualifying any artificial amplification of the Shofar sound, via a microphone or other me chanical device. The number and types of blasts were considerably multiplied in Tal mudic times in order to account for all the variations in vogue and finally make practice uniform in all congre27

gations. Basically there are three Shofar blasts derived from a triple mention of the word "teruah” in the Torah. But each teruah implies an in troductory and concluding straight-, forward note, the "tekiah”, making three in all. However, the exact nature of the teruah sound had been subject to three variations. Some employed the thrilling sound, which we call today simply "teruah”, others a wailing note, or "shevorim” and yet others a "shevorim-teruah”—a combination of both. For this reason we blow today in effect three different kinds of teruah sounds, thus taking into account all the ancient usages. ^ H E SHOFAR itself must be made of a ram’s horn, recalling the sacri fice- of Isaac, and not from a bull, which bears the unpleasant association of the sin of the Golden Calf. The shape, bent and not straight, is simi larly symbolic, of submission to G-d of the suppliant on the day of judg ment. The Shofar itself is to be blown by men and not- women, who are free of this obligation ju^t as they are, in accordance with Jewish law, of all those observances limited to a particu lar time. But Jewish women have not accepted this minimum and have not taken advantage of this dispensation. They have takep upon themselves voluntarily the solemn duty of listen ing to the Shofar blasts. The Shofar rite mav be performed during the whole of the day of Rosh Hashonah, except of course if it falls on Shabboth. Although, as Maimonides observes, the Torah offers no reason for the in junction to blow the Shofar on Rosh Hashonah, the implication is: "slumberers awaken from your sleep, search out your deeds and repent of your ways and remember your Creator. Therefore one should regard himself the whole year round as if the veridct 28

on his behavior was equally balanced. If he committed one sin he has there by turned the scales against himself and the whole world and brought de struction on it. But if one has per formed one good deed he has redressed the balance in his own favor and that of the world and brought to himself and to it salvation and deliverance.” But why particularly Rosh Hashonah? Here again we may turn to the Rambam for enlightenment. Repentance is indeed laudable the whole year round but prayer and repentance are especially appropriate on the ten days from Rosh Hashonah to Yom Kippur, when the world is judged and a new cycle of seasons begins. During this period the individual’s sincere prayers to G-d are immediately answered. T H E ROSH HASHONAH of our day has one great advantage over those of a decade and more ago. For the first time a Jewish nation in its own state celebrates the solemnity of the day and we may reread the Rambam’s restatement of the Talmudic dicta on the subject of repentance with a different emphasis. Every man, he says, has good deeds and bad. He whose good deeds are more than the evil ones is accounted righteous— "And the same thing applies to the state”. If the good deeds of its inhabi tants are more than their evil ones it is a righteous state. But this evaluation of good and bad deeds, the Rambam continues in his Laws of Teshuvah, is no arithmetical calculation of quanti ty. There are good deeds that outweigh many bad ones and vice versa: "This calculation is only made by the All Knowing One and it is He who knows how the account of good and evil deeds is drawn up.” Let me conclude by wishing every one a favorable judgment. JEWISH LIFE

T h e Jew ish "O rphan By ISAAC T R A IN IN ^ H IN K IN G American Jews are cog nizant of the corrosive winds, as well as the forward currents, playing upon Jewish life in America. W e find encouraging signs of a religious re naissance yet we may not forget the ever-present danger of assimilation and intermarriage. The danger of assimila tion looms larger as the unity of the family is threatened by the strains, the stresses and the materialistic influences of our times. The family forms the sociological core of Judaism. Through the Jewish home and parents the child receives love and security and the foundation for Jewish living so vital to his growth as a human being and his development as a Jew. Enriched by the experience of being wanted and loved, the child learns to reciprocate with warm, gen uinely positive feeling of his own. Raised in the traditions of his people, he will identify himself with the Jew ish way of life. Unfortunately, not all children have a home of their own. There are chil dren whose families have been broken by physical or mental illness, by the death of a parent, through divorce, separation or other tragic occurrences. When this happens the need arises to place children for a temporary period in the care of welfare agencies. Ad vances in mental hygiene have brought us to the realization that there are also children, who, because they cannot function or develop normally in their own homes, must be placed elsewhere for refuge and treatment. Through our long and rich history, Jewish communities everywhere fully Sept.-Oct., 1956

appreciated and took cognizance of these facts. That is why Jewish tradi tions of care and family ties were al ways encouraged. Until modern times, the problems presented today were non-existent. The child who could not reside in his home because of family breakup, illness, separation, divorce, etc., was more than welcome into the home of an uncle, a cousin, or other relative. It was rare that an institution for Jews existed per se. But with the advent of modern times and advanced medical and psy chiatric knowledge, with a new eco nomic era, it has become impossible and unwise for these children to be taken care of by anyone but agencies which are equipped and have the know-how to handle these children. That is why today we have specialized institutions and foster home care for the needy children. ^ H A T HAPPENS to a child when he is deprived of, or must leave, his natural parents? In social service we believe that in order to develop normally every child needs spiritual training, understanding and security; and that these needs are provided best by parents in a healthy family atmos phere. When his parents fail him, then the community must provide surro gates through its social welfare ma chinery. W hat is a Foster Home? It is one shared with a 'cohesive” family group. An average self-supporting family, a husband, a wife and even children, whose inter-personal relationships are accepted and warm, and who have 29

Little Flora, born in July of 1954, room in their hearts and homes for a child who has been temporarily dis whse father speaks only Yiddish, is placed by a broken home or trouble- now waiting in a group temporary ridden condition. The motive for shelter to be transferred to a foster wanting to become foster parents was home. Her mother is ill with tuber best explained by a foster mother who, culosis and is in a hospital, her stay when asked why she loved her foster there being indefinite. For so young a child said, "He has given me the op baby, who needs the mothering and portunity to enjoy motherhood again.” fathering which only family care can While the foster home cannot fully give her, the prolonged stay in a group substitute for the child’s own, it is shelter is detrimental to her develop superior to the old-fashioned orphan ment. This baby desperately needs a asylum, because objective studies of Jewish home, yet there are no homes children’s needs have convinced us to be gotten. The same is true of Dora, who, that care in a large congregate institu tion is not conducive to the young born in July of 1955, is in a group shelter waiting for an orthodox Jewish child’s best development. Before a foster home is accepted, foster home. Her mother is mentally ill a study of the home is made by a and institutionalized. The family is professionally trained case worker. very religious. She will need long-time The welfare agency which places the placement. W e have no home for the child assumes the responsibility for child, yet she is desperately in need the payment of board and supervision of one. Jackie, of a religious family, three for as long as the child remains in its care. The agency, therefore, is con weeks old, whose mother has TB, re cerned with every aspect of the child’s mained in a hospital for some time life: his day-by-day living, his secular because there was no orthodox home and religious education and his leisure for him and the group shelter did not time activities. The case worker deals have any vacancy. For so young a with the child, the foster parents and child, born to a TB mother, the hos the real parents, if there are any, help pital stay meant endangering his life. ing them all make the necessary ad (Children who must remain in hos pitals indefinitely are transferred to justment. Baby Well Wards, where the danger TN NEW YORK, we have two such of colds and other infections is very * agencies—The Jewish Child Care serious.) Association and the Jewish Youth Services of Brooklyn. Together, they TN THE area of foster homes several problems emerge, problems which provide care for 1,600 children, more than two-thirds of whom live in foster are the same for many communities. homes. The remainder reside in mod First, not too many Jewish homes are ern institutions, for it is to be remem willing to take babies. Because of bered that some children are not ready this shortage, a very young child who for a foster home and must have some needs the tender care of a real home may become emotionally scarred. form of institutional care. In New York, the Jewish agencies Following are three examples of the type of children who are in dire have called upon the Rabbinate again and again to help find proper homes need of foster homes: 30

JEWISH LIFE

for children under three, but have met with little success. While it is under standable that many prospective foster parents are not anxious to take in an infant for fear of becoming emotion ally attached to him, nevertheless, the problem plagues us and must be solved. Second, very few orthodox families apply for foster children, with the re sult that children with traditional backgrounds must linger indefinitely in institutions or other shelters until religious foster homes are found for them. Third, is the need for Chasidic homes, because Chasidim refuse to place their children even in orthodox homes unless they conform to their practice. This is an extremely sensi tive area and relates almost exclusively to families in the Williamsburg sec tion of Brooklyn. Many of these ex-

Seot.-Oct., 1956

tremely pious families are made up of men and women who, under the Nazi holocaust, lost their entire fam ilies. W ith almost no exception, they consist of large families ranging from four to eight children. Most of the men work in marginal semi-skilled oc cupations which yield a minimal in come. Under these circumstances, they become overwhelmed by many crises. When a woman becomes ill, the need to place several of the children in foster home care becomes imminent,and to repeat, because of thëir par ticular customs and traditions, it be comes difficult to find proper foster homes for these children. Many of the young do not speak English and are confronted with a language handicap. Modern concepts of child care have not reached the parents of such chil dren in the slightest degree. Under

such circumstances, the need for proper foster homes — with under standing foster parents — becomes greater and greater. A MATTER of good social work procedure the Jewish Child Care agencies in New York and elsewhere do try to match the religious back ground of the foster family with th |t of the child’s. The reason can be easily understood. The goal of the agency is to eventually return the child to his own family as soon as it is feas ible. But here we face another problem — to what extent do these children receive a proper Jewish education? For if a child care agency represents the Jewish community in locus parenti, certainly the Jewish community has the right to expect that this agency will see that the child receives a proper education. W hat is proper? W hat are the criteria? In a recent study made of Jewish children institutions throughout the country, this problem gains greater perspective. • There seems to be com plete lack of uniformity in terms of Jewish education, religious practices, Kashruth observance, etc. I submit that these problems must be shared with the Rabbinate. To paraphrase the Talmud, "Each child is a world in itself,” and a child lost through our neglect is a grievous loss to our people. The proper upbringing and care of thousands of foster chil dren helps prevent assimilation. It also prevents serious cases of emotional breakdown and even juvenile delin quency. It is the duty of our religious leaders to work closer with our Jewish Child agencies to help them find proper Jewish foster homes for these 32

children, to see that these communal agencies do not neglect the educa tional needs of children under their care, consonant with the Biblical in junction, And thou shall teach it unto thy children. J^DHERENCE to our faith is the basic safeguard against moral and spiritual disintegration of the family and the individual. If our people are forced, more and more, to go to the psychiatrist, to the social worker, to the psychologist for guidance, counsel ling and therapy, will this not threaten the spiritual leadership of the Rab binate? The problems created by this trend call for vigilance and care. The Rabbinic bodies should have standing committees which will study this problem as well as see social welfare problems on a national level and be in a position to advise their members in various communities. Perhaps it is trite to say halochah Vmaaseh too often, we fail to translate demands into practice. The challenge to the moral leadership of the Rabinate of America is to be found .in the fact that the perpetuation of Judaism in America depends to so great an ex tent on the practices and policies of our Jewish communal institutions, now separate and apart from the Synagogue. This challenge can be met squarely and constructively only if our religions leaders dynamically participate in shaping the policv of. our communal institutions. By this means we can assume that these institutions will find their proper place within the con text and spiritual guidance of Jewish religious life, in accordance with our historic traditions and religious prin ciples. JEWISH LIFE

W h a t Is A m erica’s Im m ig ra tio n Policy? By ARTH U R GREEN LEIGH J N MAY, 1939, the conscience of the civilized world was shocked by the incident of the steamship St. Louis. Many will remember that incident. Al most 1,000 frightened and harried Jewish men, women arid children, flee ing from Nazi persecution, had ob tained visas for Cuba and had embark ed on the St. Louis for Havana. And then, just before the St. Louis arrived, the visas were cancelled and these es capees were refused permission to land. Despite every effort and induce ment, the Cuban Government re mained adamant. Fearful of returning to the arms of the Gestapo in Germany, these tragic victims made frantic appeals for asy lum to one country after another in the Western Hemisphere, but all— including the United States—coldly turned their backs. The ship had to return to Europe with its precious cargo. Finally, the Joint Distribution Com mittee, after tremendous effort, was able to persuade France, Belgium, Netherlands and Great Britain each to take a portion, but only after guar antees of full maintenance costs were made. Return to Germany was averted. But when the Nazis later overran the continent, most of this group were deported and later killed. Some may remember, too, the ex perience at the Evian Conference, Sept.-Oct., 1956

called a few months earlier by Presi dent Roosevelt, when it became evi dent that hundreds of thousands of Jews and other Nazi victims would be exterminated unless governments lowered their immigration barriers and permitted even temporary asylum for some. Of the thirty governments represented, not one was willing to make concessions, not even the United States. The sole exception was the little Dominican Republic. Had that conference not been a failure, many of the six million Jews and countless others exterminated by Hitler would still be alive. HAVE since fought a war in the name of freedom and demo cracy. Our country has since become the leader of the free world. But have our immigration policies changed to reflect our broadened international re sponsibilities, our foreign policy inter ests, our domestic needs, our democra tic principles, our humanitarian ideals? Could our policies today ac commodate the desperate appeals such as emanated from the St. | Louis or from the Evian Conferences. Unfortunately, our immigration po licies have moved in exactly the oppo site direction. They reflect an isola tionist xenophobia, a fear and distrust of the very aliens who as immigrants made our country so strong. They re33

fleet the Age of the Great Fear. They are excluding valuable potential Amer icans and at the same time driving a wedge between us and the other free nations of the world. Our current im migration policies stem, not from the "thinking” part of our population but from the "hating” segment, from the noisy, bigoted, irresponsible propa ganda of those who would have inter national anarchy instead of inter national order and cooperation. Are there any logical reasons for our restrictive immigration policy? Have immigrants endangered our na tional security? Has the immigration population become an immigrant problem? Neither history nor recent events justify our current negative attitude. Our history proves that the immi grants—Catholics, Protestants and Jew —have been a distinct benefit to America economically, culturally and politically. The forty million who im migrated here since the Mayflower and their descendants have converted our

country from a wilderness to the lead ing and most prosperous nation in the world. The contribution of the immi grant to our economic, intellectual and ■spiritual life hais been enormous. They were responsible for much of our territorial and industrial expansion and brought to this country, besides a passionate devotion to the ideals of democracy, sorely needed manpower, technical skills, inventive genius, arts and sciences. They built our railroads, our cities and our industries, cultivated our farms, developed our inventions, advanced our knowledge on the arts, sciences and literature, and fought valiantly in our wars. And yet, our immigration policy is based on the erroneous belief that they and their descendants have been a liability to our country and are en dangering its safety. Could a greater libel exist? One may well ask, in view of historical fact, how our present policy evolved andvwhy it has not been , remedied.

'Product of Isolationism' Q U R COUNTRY’S present policy has been labelled by the President’s Commission on Immigration and N at uralization a "product of isolationism, of baseless fears and prejudices . . . an arrogant, brazen instrument—of discrimination based on race, creed, color and national origin.” The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, the McCarran-Walter Bill, reflects an attitude of hostility and distrust towards all aliens. It per petuates and intensifies discrimination on account of race, color, creed and national origin. It provides unneces sary and unreasonable restrictions and penalties. It places arbitrary powers in the hands of consular and immi34

gration officials thus increasing the hazards of exclusion. The present Act provides thirteen new grounds for deportation, ranging from mental or financial instability to failure to notify immigration authori ties of a change of address within ten days after the alien has moved. It also removes, the statute of limitations for violations of the law which occured more than five years prior to the com mencement of deportation action. Aliens are now subject to deportation for violations,—technical and other wise, which occured ten, twenty, or thirty years ago. Under the present law, past and pre sent political beliefs and associations JEWISH LIFE

These new immigrants are peering at the lower New York skyline through the window of the debarkation dock. Present immigration law s, asserts author Greenleigh, offer, in effect, second-class citizenship to naturalized citizens.

can be grounds for deportation. In addition, a naturalized citizen automa tically forfeits his newly acquired ci tizenship if he should be absent from the United States for five consecutive years. There are several provisions which in effect made second-class citizens out of naturalized citizens. For instance, certain infringements of the law can cause the naturalized citizen to lose his citizenship, whereas the same in fringement by a native-born citizen Sept.-Oct., 1956

could only result in a mild penalty. ^■HESE are just some of the criti cisms. The most serious indictment, however, is that the present law per petuates the national origins quota system of 1924, which presupposes that persons born in one country are superior to those born in another. Under the quotas established an in dividual born in Britain is considered to be 200 times more acceptable to America than one born in Roumania. 35

More than 80 percent of the quota is allocated to countries in Northern and Western Europe. These quota limitations were so sefious following World W ar II that Congress in 1948 enacted the Dis placed Persons Act under which 400, O00 immigrants entered the United States by the device of mortgaging quotas into the iuture. In 1953, Con gress enacted the Refugee Relief Act to accomplish a similar objective, this time to permit 209,000 to enter with out any quota limitations whatever. Both Acts demonstrated the unreason ableness of our quota laws, and yet Congress has not seen fit to alter them despite the urgent requests of Presi dent Eisenhower and President Tru man before him. In the last days of the 84th Congress which recently ad journed, the Senate made a slight at tempt at a remedy by passing a Bill that would have provided for thé pool ing of unused quotas and for elimin ation of the mortgaging of quotas of the Displaced Persons Act period. De spite W hite House support, this bill was defeated in the House of Repre sentatives and an opportunity was lost to remove some of the sting of the McCarran-Walter Act. The Lehman bill would have ac complished much more, but it was bottled up in the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, thus preventing it from being considered on its merits on the floor of Congress. The Lehman bill is an omnibus bill which would replace entirely the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952. It embodies all of the recom mendations of the President’s Com mission on Immigration and Natural ization appointed by President Tru man after the passage of the McCarran-Walter Act over his veto and includes the suggestions of major civic, religious and migration organi36

Senator Herbert H. Lehman, who announ ced, recently that he would not seek re-el ection at the end of his term in the Senate.

zations. This Bill, which a number of other Senators and members of the House of Representatives have joined in sponsoring, would make the follow ing fundamental changes: 1. Creation of a single independent government agency with full respon sibility and jurisdiction over immi gration and naturalization. 2. Issuance of visas to all qualified applicants throughout the world with out regard to national origin. This means replacing the National Origins Quota System. 3. Establishment of an annual im migration quota of 1/6 of 1 per cent of our national population as reported by the most decennial census. This formula applied to the 1950 census JEWISH LIFE

would permit annual immigration of approximately 251,000. 4. Curtailed use of deportation as a punishment. 5. Elimination of. present insup portable distinctions between nativeborn and naturalized citizens. Citizen ship acquired by naturalization could be revoked only on the grounds of fraud perpetrated in acquiring it. 6. Creation of machinery for appeal

from the decisions of visa officers abroad. 7. Modification of unduly harsh re strictions. Aliens would be judged for purposes of admission and of deporta tion on the basis of their character and record rather than on the basis of long-past and isolated incidents. These are a few of the defects of the present law and its proposed remedies.

Policy is Inconsistent J T IS important to understand that our present immigration policy is not a new development stemming from the recent combination of post war anxieties and the great fear of subversives. Nor did it start with the first quota law of 1924. It had its roots in the first persecution of various minorities. Minorities became import ant in the tensions, and upheavals of the industrial expansion following the Civil War, when in that atmosphere of psychological disintegration, at tempts were made to achieve unity of a kind by the negative device of oppo sition to some recognizable group— Negroes or Chinese or Catholics or Jews or others at hand, as scapegoats, just as the Nazis and the Communists have since done. The pattern was. probably crystallized when the Su preme Court held unconstitutional the first Civil Rights Act, which Congress had passed, to give purpose and mean ing to the 14th Amendment. The doors thus opened to discrim ination by the emasculation of the 14th Amendment, sanctioned the in tensification of agitation against all minorities and gave rise to violence against the foreign born. Chinese and Italians in some of our cities were beaten and killed. The Oriental ExSept.-Oct., 1956

elusion Act of 1882 was a direct re sult and an early triumph of the bigo try and intolerance which continued its agitation through several decades, until the national origins quota laws of 1921 and 1924 became the inevi table consequence. Congressional in tent was clear. The unsavory record of Congressional debate leading up to that law clearly shows not only anti alien feeling, but is shot through with overt Antisemitic utterances. That law was passed in Ku Klux Klan at mosphere, an atmosphere of post-war reaction, of violent xenophobia and o f: venomous antipathies, induced by the hate peddlers of that time. Though we have since fought a war against racial hatred and intoler ance, and are supposed to be an ex ample to the world of enlightened democracy and real brotherhood, there are some in our society who still need a scapegoat. It is inconsistent, that this country which was the first to grant equal rights to Jews, which was the first to permit our people to live with out the yellow badge, should continue an immigration policy so detrimental to the welfare of the country. J N ASSESSING the reasons for fail ure to enact an immigration law 37

worthy of our country, another im portant factor appears to be the wide spread misconception about the pat tern of our American culture, the roots of our historical past. In Congressional debates, and in many other areas of American life, our nation is pictured as a white Protestant, Anglo-Saxon coun try struggling to preserve its culture against the adulteration of foreign in fluences. This prevailing concept is absorbed from our history books at school, from the radio, television, movies, newspapers, books, magazines and most media of communication and entertainment. Until this misconception is correc-

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ted, until our culture is understood as a blend of cultures from many lands owing much to the Anglo-Saxon strain, but modified and enriched by immigrants from* many nations, until it is realized that more than one-third of our population is composed of first and second and third generations of non-Anglo-Saxons, and that countless numbers of their forbears played an important part in the mainstream of our earliest American history—not until these factors are understood, can we expect widespread acceptance of a realistic and truly democratic im migration policy.

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JEWISH LIFE

T h e R abbinate, th e State, A n d th e D iaspora By ISAAC R. NISSIM, Rishon L’tzion jy jY TOPIC is addressed to three but also with our rabbinic circles them facets: The Rabbinate itself, its selves by accepting this tendency. It tasks within the Jewish State and is our guilt because we are not con what the Rabbinate of Israel must do sidering what result this trend in for the Diaspora. It is from all three volves; our guilt because we have aspects that the task of the Rabbinate ourselves become partners to what should be viewed, in the perspective has resulted in the present situation. of the historical era of today. Has Israel’s Torah ever permitted The Israeli Rabbinate in its narrower itself to be secluded in its "four sense is limited to the following formal cubits"? Has there ever been an era boundaries: jurisdiction within the where the sages of Israel have not fields allotted by State Law, super spread their wings, have not impres vision of religious articles and needs,:; sed their seal on all corners of the decision on ritual problems and nation’s life? This seclusion has nar spreading religious knowledge among rowed our perspective. The Rabbinate those who learn Torah. Had it been has not apprehended the meaning of possible for humans to set limits for this era of renewed sovereignty of our Torah, we could have stated, with country and ingathering of the exiles. great satisfaction, that the Rabbinate W e have not been given the possi is fulfilling all the tasks with which bility of expressing our views on the it has been entrusted. The State and most important questions of principle the irreligious forces wish to have to the Jewish people, and these these firm limits set to the influence decisions are being made by secular of the Rabbinate, and it is in this institutions without even consulting direction that the character of the the spiritual leaders. Rabbinate in Israel is being shaped. Our means have been limited and However, this very tendency is the our scope narrowed down in setting source of evil and the reason for the forth the pattern of life for our decrease of rabbinic influence in the brethren from Arab countries. They life of Medinath Yisroel. I wish to have come in complete communal state this clearly, even if I have to entities to Israel, seeking roots in the use strong words, for this time of the Holy Land on the basis of the faith year, the days of penitence and for of their forefathers which they had giving, compel us to face the facts: brought with them. They were pre The guilt for this situation rests not vented from doing so, and we were only with the State and the public, prevented from helping them, owing Sept.-Oct., 1956

to the lack of money and facilities — but we remained silent in our homes. W hat can we say to these beloved brethren of ours who have drifted away from the Jewish way of life in which they had been brought up abroad, when they called for help which never arrived? W hat shall we answer to the generations to come who will see themselves cut off from the spirit ual heritage that had enabled our people to exist during all the millennia of its dispersion, even at times of persecution and suffering? There has been no planned activity on our side in going to our brethren in the "maabaroth” (transitory camps), in their villages and settlements, to guide them and encourage them in their efforts to uphold Jewish tradition and to give faithful Jewish education to their chil dren. They have remained alone in their struggle. T H E SPHERE of influence of the A Rabbinate has remained within the boundaries of observant Jews. There had been generations of Jews brought up on the "enlightenment” (Haskalah) in Europe. There had been genera tions flourished on the evil waters of assimilation in the Gentile lands. They erected a wall of separation between themselves and the men of Torah, and traditional Jewry appeared as an out grown, old-fashioned accessory in their eyes. They were not ready to hearken and listen. But a new generation has grown up in Israel, the children of the aforementioned and of others who had been born and brought up in the air of Israel, whose ears have never heard Torah and who have never seen Jew ish tradition in their parents’ house. This youth, however, wants to know, ; is ready to listen, to gather impressions and exchange views. But who, is ap40

proaching them? W ho is offering them drink from the faithful fountains of the Torah? I have repeatedly been surprised seeing young people with no knowledge of the Jewish religion, who, when they came into contact with the Torah way of life, when they gained a glimpse of Judaism’s ethics and principles, opened their eyes in astonishment and asked: Why was all this treasure held back from us? I was deeply moved by a little leaf let of two printed pages, recently pub lished, written by a man from an irreli gious Kibbutz. The leaflet deals with the future of the Judaism of the Kib butz children. Its contents reverberate in my mind. This Kibbutznick, who has grown up all his life in surround ings opposed to Jewish values, taught to mock at Torah—now sees a black picture and cries: Our youth, nurtured on Torah-less education, on training void of every Jewish practice, this youth foreign to the commandments of the Torah—has no future. It is bound to be severed from the Jewish people, and the Jewish State will be come nil. These words are written with the heart-blood of a suffering Jew and make the heart of the reader tremble. How could we have believed that the road was blocked, that we must yield to despair, while our road can be paved and straightened. Will that voice remain a voice in the desert, or shall we join forces with him to save the generation? T H E BLOCKADE has to be broken * through disseminating our views, through sending out in s tru c to rs , through literary activity. Truly, it is hard to impose duties of that kind upon officiating Rabbis. However, all the G-d-fearing can be concentrated around the Rabbinate, all those gifted JEWISH LIFE

with literary abilities, all those who are ready and understanding enough to do pioneer work for the sake of the Torah; to organize, to blueprint, to guide, to advise, to direct and to symbolize through our own example that in which we believe. The sages of Torah should also learn the wisdom of action. Those who sit immersed in study must interrupt their studies for the sake of the Very existence of the Torah. By the grace of G-d, we possess in Israel a great army of devout Yeshivah students who should be trained and prepared for these great tasks. It is around the Rabbinate that these activ ities should concentrate, and thence the word of Torah should be proclaimed through its faithful messengers. To this end, a staff and a budget are needed. Unfortunately, the budget al located by the State for religious pur poses— through the Ministry of Re ligions— is ridiculously small. I know from personal experience how difficult it is to work without sufficient funds. Visiting immigrants’ settlements in the Lachish area, in the Negev and other

parts of the country, I have tried to explore the religious problems in those places. The settlers of themselves brought forth their problems, asked for the strengthening of the ties be tween the shepherds of Israel and the masses. They complained about neg lect in various religious matters owing to want of funds and facilities. I saw that in one settlement the Mikvah was missing, in another, the "Eruv”; here, a synagogue and there, religious in structors. I was unable to supply all their demands, but found nevertheless that to visit them is in itself important, to raise their morale, to strengthen them in their, struggle, to reinforce their Jewish consciousness. If a plan along these lines were to be worked out, there can be no doubt that also the means will be found. For the time being every single Israeli Rabbi and Dayan should dedicate certain hours of his time for organization and direc tion to start with. W hat we need is awakening on our own side, an increase of pioneer and volunteer work.

Educational Aspect Q O N TA C T W ITH the authorities in we be satisfied with the achievements the matters relevant to religion, to of the government-sponsored religious the education of the coming genera educational trend alone? Let me dwell tion, is of utmost importance. Why on just one single point in the educa are the legislative and the religious tional field: Hebrew literature of the authorities considered as two entirely Haskalah period is being taught in separate spheres without any common Hebrew schools, including the religious ground? This is an artificial separa ones, more than the Bible! And what tion, and much can be ach iev ed is this literature? You can find there through the "rapprochement” of hearts. savage mockery at the faithful Jew, The authorities, after all, are also Jew who is always the villain of the story, ish and need guidance by the Rab portrayed as a base creature not fit to binate in the boundaries of Judaism, have been born. It is this literature and let us leave politics and administra that presents Jewish tradition as a ves tion to their jurisdiction. sel void of content, as a mass of decayed I am asking myself: W hat have we obsolescent survivals, devoid of all done, for instance, for education? Can vitality and appeal. $ept.-0ct.f 1956

W hat have we done to counteract this negative force in the education of our children? Are we really so power less? W e have recently heard of many, many who are seeking means and ways to develop a Jewish conscience in the schools. At a special conference called by the Israel Minister of Education, it was a member of the Hebrew Univer sity faculty who voiced protest against the prevailing educational system as having forsaken the sources of Judàism to seek "foul and broken wells.” Is this not deeply significant? W e must therefore encourage and aid this trend

and make it penetrate everywhere. The same applies to other fields. When an injustice is committed to the interests of Judaism in the State — often intentionally and provocatively — it really emanates from the. lack of knowledge, the lack of contact between the religious authorities and the ad ministrative apparatus. In our era we need a systematic program of clear and profound propaganda. Where are the faithful men of thought and pen? Have their pens run dry? W e must reactivate them, we must become a stimulus for creative endeavor.

Influence Abroad ^ H IS IS WHERE I come to the third * and last point, namely, the problem of the influence of thè Rabbinate of Israel abroad. The Diaspora has al ways seen its center in Jerusalem, has always directed its religious and other problems to the Holy Land and has sought rajbbis from there. Especially is this true with the Sephardi com munities. In certain eras these contacts were weakened, but at present, by the grace of G-d, there are among us many superior spiritual forces. However, some Jewish communities in America and part of Europe no longer turn to the Holy Land for religious leadership. Seminaries in America are putting out every year large numbers of graduates who are now shaping the spiritual form of Jewry in the Diaspora. The products of some of these seminaries do not heed Israeli rabbis, nor will the Israeli Rabbinate ever agree to their ways and will not solve problems their way. They do not fear to abolish parts of the Torah and this does not refer to matters over which opinions differ but the very fundamentals of Judaism. While Rambam and Rabbi 42

Josef Karo spared no toil to clarify the smallest doubt pertaining to re ligious law—the ministers of Reform and similar groups consider themselves "competent” to eradicate basic prin ciples with one stroke of the jpen. In their eyes, Torah is like a sort of clay. It is our duty to fortify ourselves against this state of affairs, taking larger and larger dimensions. This need exists not only with regard to the Diaspora, for many may rightly say that before we come to guard another vine yard, we have to guard our own. But it is a fact that these methods are also spreading to Israel, and things have reached a level where Reform wishes to invade our territory and establish itself here. I do not have to describe the terrible rift this may cause and the disaster for Judaism and the State if G-d forbid — their wish is fulfilled. Let us not forget what Reform has done to our people. It has brought assimilation and disintegration in the Dispersion, has blotted out the name of Jerusalem from its prayer-books and made every Jewish feeling fade. It has built a bridge and paved the JEWISH LIFE

way leading from Judaism to Chris tianity, which it tried to imitate. W e must strive to create a program whereby the Rabbinate of Israel can bring spiritual guidance to the entire Diaspora. W e must build seminaries in Israel to prepare rabbis for the Diaspora, rabbis trained in the spirit of Torah and Holiness and thoroughly conversant with the problems, the lan guages and the outlook of their place of activity. This plan may seem far fetched, but with the necessary dili gence it can be realized. Courses can be established in Israel for students of American Yeshivoth and Seminaries, so that every rabbinical candidate should undertake to study one or two years in Israeli Yeshivoth. They will get here what they cannot get abroad, and a time will come when no faithful Jewish community will receive a rabbi not ordained in Israel. This will not happen easily and within the immediate future. It may take a whole generation, but we must start right now, even though the fruits may ripen only in the days of our children or grandchildren. Such has

ever been the way of the Jewish people, like that Jew who planted the carobtree bearing fruits only after seventy years and who, upon the question of Choni, answered that he was preparing the tree for his children and grand children. ^ H E SPIRIT of Judaism, despite its dynamic power, does not presently govern various aspects of Jewish life because of lack of organization. Sec ularism and other powerful elements take advantage of this lack of organiza tion. I am convinced that whatever the Diaspora does for the State of Israel is done for the sake of its attachment to Judaism and tradition, knowingly or subconsciously. Once the carriers of the banner of Torah will show their strength, the entire Diaspora will stand at their side. May G-d grant that we should be found worthy before Him to be the tools for this great task, and may the spark be kindled within us, encourag ing us to act for the sake of Hashem Yisborach, His Torah and the Land of our Forefathers.

THE THREE BOOKS Rabbi Yochanan said: "Three books are opened on Rosh Hashonah, one for the totally* wicked, one for the totally perfect, and one for the ordinary mortal who has within him both good and bad. . . . The final decree for the last is not sealed until Yom Kippur." W e are given time to improve, and if w e truly aspire, w e shall surely succeed. Talmud, Rosh Hashonah, 16b

THE LIVING AND THE DEAD Rabbi Abahu said: The angelic hosts asked the Holy One, Blessed be He, "Why does not Israel sa y the Hallel on Rosh Hash onah and Yom Kippur?" G-d answered, "How can the Hallel be recited when the book of the living and the book of the dead are open? Even the book of the dead is open because past genera tions are judged by the deeds of their descendants. Talmud, Rosh Hashonah, 32b Sept.-Oct., 1956

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JEWISH LIFE

M ara By URSULA LEHM AN H e r black eyes sparkling with sup pressed laughter, Mara set my plate before me and whisked out to the kitchen again to get another real or fancied necessity still missing from the table. Her gentle teasing had had us all laughing a moment before and Joel was still grinning at the discomfi ture he was certain i must be feeling at her goading. I smiled too, but my mind was elsewhere. I was so busy watching her as she bustled about, so captivated by her animation as she spoke, that I hadn’t really heard her words. I must have been a strange visitor. I wanted only to observe and had no wish to talk, just as one has no wish to talk when watching a superb play, for fear of missing something, if only an inflection or tone of voice. It was not my way to be so quiet but Joel seemed not to notice. I thought fleetingly that perhaps he had forgotten what I was like, but knowing Joel I had to discard this as impossible. Most likely he was just overjoyed at seeing me again and knew we had the gap of years to bridge. It was the time before the gap that held me numb as I returned to it and silently relived it, and marveled at the ways of G-d who wrought his profound changes silently so that none could watch the process but see^only the results. *pHOSE past years had been a won derful time, I mused. W e were happy. One big happy family. I smiled to myself at the false sounding cliche Sept.-Oct., 1956

my mind was using, but its true; that’s just what we were. W e were robust, all of us, right from Papa through Mama, Robbie, Anna, Joel and me, "Bennie,” the baby. W e were boisterous and quick witted, and my friend Josh once told me that coming into our house was like taking a ride on a roller coaster. It was the year that I was eight that I became finally aware of the one tra gedy in our family. The Shabbos that l first saw my favorite brother Joel, have one of his blackouts is one I shall never forget. I’d been honored by him that day as he took me to the "boys’ minyon” created by him and his friends. Always before I’d gone with father to our regular shool, but going with the adults pleased me not nearly as much as joining Joel’s friends. All the way home Joel teased me about what he called my initiation and was so amusing that as usual I found it hard to remember that he was really five years older than I; he was really more - fun than even my best friend Josh. Joel stepped through our door first and gleefully plopped into the old overstuffed chair, our family’s favorite. "That’s what I like about our minyon,” he grinned, "no sermon, so we get home before the others and I get the chair.” I knew he was joking since he was gabbai of the boys’ minyon and took his duties seri ously when he hoped no one noticed, but I was still too keyed up from my exciting morning to protest. Suddenly, as I moved to retrieve his 45

hat from the other chair where he’d thrown it, so that I too could slouch down, Joel's eyes closed, l thought it was a joke and that he was pretend ing to be asleep, so 1 tiptoed over and began to tickle him. Surprisingly, no thing happened, i shook him then, and in wonder at the lack of response fled to the kitchen for some water. I dimly remember the aroma of my mothers thick "Shabbos soup” that had been simmering overnight but my vague uneasiness was already evident in that i did not peek into the pot as was my habit but went straight back out to the living room with my filled glass. I tried splashing Joel, and then wiping his forehead as my mother did to me when 1 had a fever, but Joel only turned "his face slightly away and his eyes remained Closed. Now 1 was frightened. He looked asleep but no one fell asleep so quickly nor slept so soundly. No one would be home for at least twenty minutes and I was afraid to leave Joel even for a moment. I shall never forget those stretching minutes 1 sat with him. When Papa’s key turned in the lock I sat still, so rigid with worry that I could not say a word, but the moment he and Mummy entered the quiet was broken. 'I t s Joel, Anna,” she said to my older sister and the way Anna went unhesitatingly to the medicine cabinet without any further orders told my mind dimly that this was not a sur prising occurrence to the others. Mummy meantime prepared Joel for bed, and Papa carried him there. Robbie came out to me then, evidently sent by one of my parents or Anna, and talked to me quietly. T LEARNED then about Joel’s child hood auto accident and its tragic aftermath. "Joel will sleep awhile, and 46

when he wakes he will remember no thing,” Robbie told me. "We don’t talk to him about it then and you mustn’t either. He doesn’t get these blackouts often and he doesn't seem to mind them, which is lucky since he will have them all his life.” Soon, I didn’t mind them either. Why should 1 if Joel himself didn’t? Mother always said he had grand father’s temperament and we all let it go at that, thinking that since his disposition was evidently inherited we didn’t have to worry. It never occur red to us that it might take effort or be an act; it was just Joel. It sounds incredible that we could really believe what we did about Joel but he had us all fooled. He seemed to know no cares, and it is a tribute to his acting ability that he was able to make it seem that this indifference had nothing to do with nobility or bravery but was merely part of his character. He seemed almost callous to his troubles sometimes in his indif ference and persistent good humor and we accepted it, thinking only how for tunate it was that this had happened to one who didn’t give a darn. Now from the vantage point of hindsight I wonder that we did not realize, for he was never callous about other peo ple’s troubles! TT WAS 1947 that Mara came. Papa had found her after two years and thirteen agencies and we were solemn ly told that she was the only one left of Mother’s family in Galicia. She wasn’t even very close family at that, a daughter of Mother’s third cousin Sarah, but Papa brought her over after speaking to all kinds of important people and she came to live with us. W e’d been warned to be extra nice to her since she had several memories lumped under the heading of "conJEWISH LIFE

centration camp | that she would prob ably rather forget. The only way we knew to be nice to anyone was to joke with them, tease with them and laugh with them. W e began right away . . . It was a mistake. Mara didn’t know anything about laughing with people; she knew only about laughing at them, and that’s.what she thought we were doing to her. She had red hair, and of course I began immediately to talk about carrots, and how they reminded me of her. “Carrots are food,” she said, in her careful English “and one doesn’t eat people.” True her words may have been out to my mind not relevant at all. And so it went. “American girls don’t have such a cute accent,” said Joel the next morn ing at breakfast. “Americans have no manners,” re plied Mara. “Bennie here eats cream with cereal instead of cereal with cream,” attemp ted Robbie next, “how about you?” “This is not the concern of others,” he was told. It was most depressing. In fact, she sort of put a damper on us. It wasn’t that we’d expected her to be grateful or anything like that, but at least we did think she would meet us part way on the road to friend ship. Well, she didn’t. If anything she pushed us off. She never said a word if she could help it unless she was spoken to, and then as few words as possible. It wasn’t only that, but some how when she was around she made us feel guilty for even smiling, let alone joking with each other. She seemed somehow to think that the world owed her a living, as the saying goes, and that she should be pampered and pleased though of course not spoken too lightly. How, her looks seemed to ask us, could we be gay when she was not gay? Sept.-Oct., 1956

As if these things were not enough she managed to make herself unpopu lar in another way too. W e’d always pitched in together in the chores around the house and as a matter of course expected her to do so too, but she did nothing unless asked. And we were not the kind of family that asked.

jyjUMMY asked her once about the future, and got such an astonish ing reply that she told us of it. Mara had somehow unbent for a moment and told her philosophy of life. “In America,” she said, “one must be beau tiful. No one wants a girl from con centration camp, but the beautiful ones, they get along anyhow. They know how to get what they want, and in this country it is the looks that count. I am not beautiful,” she con tinued flatly, “no one will ever want me.” After this we left her alone. W e felt sorry for anyone who could have such twisted thoughts but she would not let us get close enough to her for us to clear her up. Life went back to normal. She came home from school later than the rest of us because she was taking a double program to catch up, so until she came we were our usual rowdy selves. Even afterwards we could not always turn ourselves off, and sometimes teased her just to see what her latest reply would be. Only Joel seemed always able to con trol himself and tease her not at all. He did this simply by not speaking to her at all“ which was quite a feat indeed for. Joel! I think now that she sensed his special efforts and was grateful but I don’t think she ever said anything about it. Soon she even began to have a social life of a sort, if you could ever call her social, that is. Rabbi Shoner from our shool came to her one 47

Shabbos morning and as a special favor asked her to substitute that after noon for one of the group leaders who was ill. She could hardly refuse. t The strange thing was that she seemed to enjoy the task. Soon she was a regular leader, and the children seemed to get along with her. Perhaps she didn’t think the seven-year-olds were part of the world that owed her a living. J H E N the unexpected happened. I actually had a whole conversation with Mara. Not a very pleasant one, however. It was one of those swelter ing 92 degree Sundays when I would have liked to have been swimming in the pool that a college near us had available on weekend afternoon for boys from twelve to fourteen (I was a very proud fourteen at the time), but it was the Sunday before Tisha B’av and I couldn’t go swimming so I’d decided to stay home and do the learning I was actually supposed to do. Mara had gone to some leaders’ meeting and when the door opened I

didn’t even look up. But then some thing electric in the air made me turn my head. Mara’s face was so flushed that it almost matched her hair. Some how this unusual animation covered her plainness, making her look almost pretty! I just looked. Suddenly Mara put her things on the table and sprawled on, the floor next to my chair. It was an attitude we others often assumed, the rug being very comfortable, but not our intro verted young lady! W hat occasion was this, I wondered. It became evi dent then. She had something to tell. I was really the most harmless one in the family in her eyes, I suppose (an idea most people have about the "baby” in the family, to my great and everlasting annoyance) and she began immediately. ##J T WAS from an acident, wasn’t it?” she asked, and rushed on not waiting for an answer. "I mean Joel’s blackouts. They’re harmless really. I’ve seen them myself, but Bennie, do you know what people are saying? I over heard two of the girls talking after the meeting. They were talking about Joel, and . . . and they said that there’s, something wrong with him mentally. They don’t believe about the accident -and said that blackouts and not re membering them afterward must be a‘ sickness . . . But Bennie, it’s not true; Joel’s O.K. and they’re just mak ing it up and spreading rumors.” She stopped speaking for a moment and then went on more quietly, "I didn’t want them to know I heard so I waited till they left, but now I don’t know what to do. W e’ve just got to do something to tell them.” I cut in then, idiot that I was. " 'Course it’s not true. But what’re you so excited for? They’re just a couple of gossipping females, (My JEWISH LIFE

contempt for said creatures at this time was boundless). Don’t get so worried over nothing. Joel doesn’t mind; don’t you know that? So why should you?” For a moment she seemed not to hear me. Then, in her usual flat voice she said, "Bennie, I think you are mistaken.” For just a moment I had a suspi cion that she might be right . . . but I dismissed it. At the moment I was much more interested in the unpre cedented fact that for once Mara had not only come to one of us to talk something over ( even if it was only to me) but that she had actually been concerned about something besides herself for once. But it didn’t last. At the breakfast table next morning when Robbie pulled one of Anna’s braids and tried to get Mara to pull the other, she only said ‘‘School boy!” in her most contemptuous voice. Mara was herself again. T H E STRANGE thing was, they A both began to break at the same time. Joel and Mara, that is. Of course we didn’t expect a break from Joel since we didn’t think a care in the world could touch him, and we’d about given up on Mara. It happened one evening about a week before Rosh Hashonah, although Mara told me about it much later. W e were at Dave Lowenson’s Bar Mitzvah dinner, all but Joel who had a date and Mara who went to the library working on a report. She couldn’t find what she wanted, so she went home since she’d have the whole house to herself. As she reached for her key she no ticed that the door was unlocked. She blamed me of course ( such were my habits) and went in. Suddenly she heard a noise. It sounded almost like somebody choking and she followed Sept.-Oct., 1956

the sound immediately. It led to Joel’s room. There seated at his desk with his head on his arms was Joel, sob bing as if his heart would break. Mara was very quiet. She sat on his bed and just waited. When the sobbing stopped somewhat she only looked at him. W ith a wisdom beyond her seventeen years she did not ask what was wrong, but waited for him to tell it. He did. U^‘For years,” he told her jerkily, “I have not spoken of it, I have not even let myself think of it except for one week in the year. I couldn’t help it. On Rosh Hashonah at least I thought I was entitled to ask. I asked last year and the year before and the year be fore that. I begged G-d to stop it; to make it go away. I pleaded on Yom Kippur that since all the prayers of the congregation are still being heard mine should be heard too. Am I worse than all the others? Are my sins so bad that they are heard and they are answered and I am not? It’s not so; I know it’s not. There are others much worse than I. Why did this happen to me?” He stopped, but Mara knew this was not all. She still waited. “You know Sally,” he began again in a more controlled voice. “I took her out tonight. I . . . well . . . I started to talk seriously to her . . . She listened, Mara . . . and I know she wanted to say yes . . . I just know it . . . but in stead she said . . . the accident . . . ” His voice trailed away. He got up and went to his bureau for a handkerchief and when he turned around all trace of tears were gone. “Why won’t it go away, Mara,” he asked in quiet des peration. “Is praying for nothing? See what it’s done to me. This year, I won’t even be able to ask anymore. I can’t believe any longer that it might help.” 49

J J A D IT been my father instead of Mara sitting on the bed, were he not too astounded at Joel’s now dis covered attitude, he would have said, in strict theological truth, that Joel could not have the temerity to judge his worth against others’; this only G-d could do, or perhaps he would have reminded Joel that tribulations in this world are a blessing, for they minimize those in the world to come, but Mara said none of these things. She was much too wise. She thought of them fleetingly but knew at once that these truths would bring no aid. "People are cruel,” she told him. Sometimes. I know. People were cruel to me, but you here have been kind. Many of my prayers have been ans wered now, here when I had long ago given them up.” There was just enough surprise in her voice to show that she was realizing this herself now only for the first time. "Joel, don’t ask anymore that your blackouts should go away. Why should they go away? G-d must have had some reason for giving them to you in the first place. Think, Joel, and ask instead for something else. Ask that you should know the reason. Perhaps G-d will let you know the reason. If He does, it will be enough, Joe.

she smiled now at our jokes. I think she did it to try to bring fun into Joel’s life, not realizing that the fun had always been there and that he knew how to laugh long before she did. I think too that Joel knew what she was trying to do for him but though he thought it unnecessary he did not disillusion her. He was trying to help her. All in all it was quite a nice little deception all around. At first Mara smiled. It took almost a year until she laughed. It took an other year until she put salt in Robbie’s coffee. By then I was seven teen, old enough to have eyes in my head, and what I was beginning to see between Mara and Joel did not look like animosity. Hardly. I was overseas with Uncle Sam when I fin ally received a letter that I’d been ex pecting for sometime. "Sorry you can’t be at the Chassunah,” was one of the things it said, and "I think I have found my reason; I might never have found the real Mara inside^ the pro tective shield,” was another. I guess she’d told him that I knew the story. But I don’t really think he found her. I think he changed her. I think that was his "reason” . . . but I suspect actually Joel knows this too.

J T WAS the beginning of the change. W e noticed nothing about Joel, for he was his usual self, but we could not help seeing it in Mara. It was as if a sudden warmth had poured into her where none was before. I suppose now that she was brought of herself and her own self-pity by her pity for Joel. She was sweet to him, that’s the only word that can describe her mood, and perhaps surprised at the result it had, she began to use this sweetness on all of us. She was still quiet; she didn’t joke, not even with Joei, but

JJ^FTER my discharge I was out in California for a while on business. Joel got his engineering degree and a good job meantime, and when I finally * came back east and visited them I came to a cozy well-furnished little house and an obviously contented Joel. But my main surprise was Mara. I could not take my eyes off her. And as I sat across the table from her J suddenly realized what the great change was. It was not ^nly a happy person that she had become. It was much more now. Mara was a beautiful woman.

JEWISH LIFE

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C o m m u n a l C o n tro l O r P riv ate E n te rp rise By ISAAC L. SW IFT

jyrucH has been said and written from time to time on the con trast between English and American Jewries — on the marked differences between the organized and disciplined character of Anglo-Jewish life and its main institutions, and the somewhat incoherent tendencies here in Ameri can Jewry. Nevertheless, the recent visit of Britain’s Chief Rabbi Brodie to these shores, and the aspects of Anglo-Jewish organization and co hesion to which he referred time and again in public and private conversa tion, served to focus attention once again on the benefits which English Jewry derives from its co-ordinated life, and the loss sustained by com munities over here by their lack of such co-ordination. I feel with deep conviction that the splendid Jewry of America has much to gain and cer tainly nothing to lose by a further scrutiny of the picture that English Jewry presents, and from a comparison of the picture with conditions here in their own communities. It would be well to establish one point at the outset: Anglo-Jewry is not built on the European "Gemeinde” system, as many here mistakenly sup pose. All associations of a religious and communal character in England are absolutely voluntary, with no reg ulation by the State and no compulsion by the Government. It is, in fact, part 54

of the splendour of the Anglo-Jewish tradition that, in such circumstances, closely-knit institutions have come into being which do actually exercise a high authority and exert a valuable disciplinary influence in binding the community together, enabling it to speak articulately and to act consis tently as an integral body; there is one spokesman for Anglo-Jewry on each issue that may arise: the Chief Rabbinate on religious matters,;; the Board of Deputies on political and public-relations problems, and so on. W

ELL has it been said that England stands sociologically midway be tween Europe and America: the regimentation of Europe and the in dividualism of America find their '’half-way home” in the English pat tern — social, cultural and even to some extent political. Certainly it may be claimed that Anglo-Jewry stands midway between the "Gemeinde” of Europe, where the communal and re ligious attachments were in a large measure compulsory, and the total lack of any forms of compulsion in Ameri can Jewry. The Jewish community of England has evolved the free and voluntary ’acceptance by the vast majority of discipline and control — by the community. Perhaps, indeed, the essence of the difference between the two Jewries, British and American, JEWISH LIFE

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may be summed up in the assertion that whereas in England there is com munal control of religious needs, here the American concept of private enterprise dominates the situation. It is perfectly true, of course, that even in England there are separatists and "fractional” groups — it could not be otherwise — a free society; but these are small in number and weak in influence. For the broad mass, communal authority in every significant field of religious life is unques tioned, with advantages that are evident even to the most superficial observer. Let a few instances suffice, for I can hope in the compass of these lines to deal with but few of the many aspects of English and American Jewish com; munal undertakings that invite comparrison. CjHECHITAH and Kashruth chal lenge particular attention. In Eng land, the financing of Shechitah, the appointment of shochetim and shomerim, the issuing of licenses to butchers, in fact all matters relating to the supply of kosher meat, are completely under communal control. In no instance is the shochet, the shomer, the mashgiach or the rabbi engaged or paid by the tradesman — or by the trade. It is the community, through its Board of Shechitah, which receives the appropriate fees from the trade, and which engages and pays personnel; shochet and rabbi alike are independent of the will or whim of the trades man, and may make their pronounce ments on Kashruth without concern for the latter's preferences. It is the community which issues licenses to butchers entitling them to the patron age of the Jewish public, and well does the butcher know the consequenSept.-Oct, 1956

ces to his livelihood should an infringe ment of the Din result in withdrawal of his license. Similarly in matters of Kashruth generally, it is the community, through its Kashruth Commissions in London and the provinces, which supervises hotels and restaurants, and which is sues Hechsherim for kosher products the year round and at Passover: with the most rare of exceptions, it is the community’s endorsement of a prod uct that stamps it as kosher, and not that of an individual Rabbi, however, eminent he may be. How different the American scene! To elaborate on the contrast would be to labour the obvious. pU N E R A L and burial arrangements likewise call for comment. No congregation or community in AngloJewry is served in these melancholy matters by private-enterprise under takers or by privately owned cemeter ies. Funeral arrangements are always made by Communal Burial Societies, and Jewish cemeteries are all, without exception, owned and administered by the community. The safeguarding of the Din and of the austere dignity of Jewish burial, as well as of the financial issues involved, will surely need no stressing here: for where there is no commercial motive in in fringing Jewish law, and in defying the Shulchon Oruch by encouraging the use of costly caskets and by setting aside the solemn rites of Taharah, there need be no infringement and no violation — nor is there. W ho’ that has sombre occasion to infringe upon the undertaker here need be told of the lamentable neglect and even repudiation of the Shulchon Oruch in this significant field of Jewish Jaw? Turning from the mournful subject 55

of burial to the more cheerful one of marriages, brings us to another sharp contrast between the procedure in both countries — and the results. Every marriage solemnised in or through the orthodox Synagogues and Rab binate of Anglo-Jewry must be author ized by the Chief Rabbi. This removes, almost completely if not altogether, the possibility of marriages under orthodox auspices bring celebrated in controvertial of Jewish law. Once again, there is communal control, sup erbly exercised by an office that enjoys the trust and loyalty of the overwhelm ing mass of the community. He would be a bold man indeed who would make claim for American Orthodoxy that no marraiges solemnized under its auspices violate the Din. Without the restraints of a central Rabbinic authority, and often without the full requisite knowledge on the part of some "self-appointed” officiants, mar riages are but too often performed which contravene basic principles of Halacheh. pE R H A PS the contrast between com munal control and individual authority is nowhere more dearly seen than in the matter of proselytes: in Anglo-Jewry, only authorized — and permanent — Battey Din are em powered to receive Gerim; here in America, any rabbi who chooses to may, and all too frequently does, en gage in this activity, with possibilities of abuse that strike at the roots of the integrity of Jewish family life. The "private enterprise rabbi” is some times a doubtful blessing to his pro fession, and frequently a positive bane to his community. Let me give you one more example, 56

and leave others of the many that could be cited to the enquiries of the reader. I refer to the rites of Brith Milah. In England, authorized mohelim must satisfy the requirements and up hold the regulations of the Initiation Society, a communal body created spe cifically to safeguard this important aspect of Jewish religious practice. Once more there is communal control —no Mohel may be a "law unto him self.” Need it be wondered that such questions as the use of the clamp, and others that bewilder and confuse the situation here, do not arise there? J T WILL NOT, I hope, be thought that these observations have been made in a mood of carping criticism of American Orthodoxy; quite the contrary—orthodox American Jewry has within itself a virility and a poten tial that move the envy of the English Jew, when he sees not only its vastly greater numbers, nor only its consider ably greater resources, but also, the loyalty of its masses, the profound learning of its Rabbinic leaders, and the phenomenal growth of some of its institutions. Rather have I made these remarks because the newcomer to American Jewry can so easily see its magnificant heritage threatened by disintegration less by the attacks of hetorodoxy and by the corrosions of illiteracy than by the lack of a coherent effort to establish the rule of au thority in its religious life. W hat has been attempted with such glittering results in the creation of communal control of philanthropy by Jewish leadership here, may surely be attemp ted in the vital religious affairs of the community too. JEWISH LIFE

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Sept.-Oct., 1956

F acing th e F u tu re By D AVID DE SOLA POOL RECENTLY I completed a world en Israeli honorary consul, Dr. Jacobsohn. circling journey. An intimate view He personally gathers them in his home of Jewish conditions and a study, of bn such occasions as the eve of PassJewish needs were motivating factors over and for religious services on the in these travels. I visited, besides the High Holy Days. They came together beloved land of Israel, such countries there on a Friday evening when we as New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, were in Bangkok, and I conducted for Thailand, Cambodia, India, Turkey, them a Sabbath eve service. At its Greece and England. In such journey- close, one of those present said to me ings one sometimes sees a Jewish ceme that that was the first community Sab tery in a place where today there is no bath service that had been held in all longer a Jewish congregation. In Suva, the thirty years during which he had the capital city of the Southern Pacific lived in Bangkok. Many are the difficulties today faced islands of Fiji, there are vestigial mem ories of Jewish pioneers and settlers by the Jews in Calcutta, Delhi, Bom who in the past meant much to the bay, Pona, Cochin, Parur, and other islands. A well organized community towns in India. In all that vast land such as that of Perth in Western there is but one rabbi. In Calcutta, Australia has to struggle to overcome besides a small shool, there are two difficulties of its Jewish isolation. The imposing synagogue buildings. One nearest Jewish neighbor is the com has sixty, the other has seventy scrolls munity of Melbourne, 2,000 miles of the Torah reposing in the Ark, away. In the neighboring port of Fre though each of these synagogues has mantle, where almost seventy years ago recently sent many Torahs as gifts to there grew up the first Jewish com new settlements in Israel. Yet both of munity in Western Australia, there is them which are so rich in parchment not a single Jewish resident today. But scrolls of the Torah are in large meas one can still see there, crowned with ure denuded of worshipers. the Shield of David, a substantial brick structure which was built for a syna J^ET THESE few examples suffice to illustrate our fundamental life-andgogue but which is now part of a large supermarket. In Djakarta, the capital death Jewish problem of how to assure city of Indonesia, some 150 Jews resi and strengthen our religious survival. dent there have no organized Jewish Can we as Americans take effective life. Only a cemetery holds them to world action? The isolation of America is a thing gether. In Bangkok, capital of Thai land, the Jews know, each other and of the past. Through our government are drawn together only through the and through some of our munificent American foundations, our country is Based tin an address delivered at the recent stretching out its hand to help one annual dinner of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. land after another all over the free 58

JEWISH LIFE

world. Thus in India, I met Americans who had been sent there to help such causes as improving agricultural meth ods, planning the building of cities, furthering industry, and bringing in the most modern techniques of medical healing. There is no free country where that same general pattern is not repeated. In this new American spirit, I earnestly and passionately urge that because of our potential and actual ! strength the Union of Orthodox Jew ish Congregations of America, as the spokesman of American o rth o d o x Jewry, henceforth set itself to strengthen Judaism from a world perspective. Our I eternal faith is a world religion. His tory reminds us that for two thousand five hundred years the Jewish people have not been constrained to its dis tinctive way of life only within nar row national frontiers. W ithout yield ing anything of our historic bond with the Holy Land and of our sense of fulfillment in the momentous rebirth of the State of Israel, we cannot accept a geographic constriction of Judaism, especially in our shrunken one world of today. W ith its jet planes, with its hope of an atomic age for peace, and with its radio which binds us instantaneously into one, the world we live in is al together different from that into which the Orthodox Union was born 59 years ago in 1898. It came into existence in the assembly hall of my Congrégation Shearith Israel tinder the inspiring leadership of my revered predecessor, H. Pereira Mendes, who for its first 14 I years was its president. It was organ

ized with the vision of giving service in the United States and Canada. It has been giving this service increas ingly on a nationwide scale. Yet valuable as is this work today, we cannot be content. Arising from land after land beyond our Southern border can be heard the desperate and sometimes the despairing appeal for the interest and for the educational help and the moral Jewish support that American orthodox Jewry can and should give. Personnel, equipped with mastery of the Spanish language, should be made available to prepare material and for and to keep in touch with the many forlorn, struggling and in considerable measure isolated Jew ish groups who are often without any rabbinic leadership in land after land south of the United States. Have we the moral right to hold ourselves apart from them as they struggle to cling to their Judaism, which will become more and more a blurred residual memory of the past unless they be guided in spirit? These scattered groups are waiting for a sign that some great Jewish or ganization will take an interest in them for their own sake. It is not enough that occasionally there comes to them an emissary to collect funds for some Jewish cause. The organized forces of orthodox Jewry must reach out to our brethren in Latin American. W e should send them our literature as a first step and invite them to our conclaves when ever possible. This might well give to their Judaism a new fillip of strength ened morale and enlarged solidarity.

Neglected Communities W MUST go yet further. In the our eyes and realistically recognize the new world perspective which the desperate need for extending our in modern conquest of distance forces on terest to many neglected, leaderless, us, we must in all consistency lift up lonely Jewish communities not only in SeDt.-Oct.. 1956

America, but here, there, and every! the offices of the Va ad Hadatoth of the where, in Europe, Asia, Africa and Ministry of Religion, the Mizrachi, Australia. How can we say no or and the Agudath Israel, emphasizing myopically limit our vision for fear of and ever re-emphasizing the primary taking on additional burdens when es need for training modern religious tablishing these ties may, like a spiritual leaders for synagogues and Je w ish transfusion of life-blood, determine schools throughout the Americas and survival instead of extinction for a all the far-scattered Diaspora. community? W e should go still further, not to J^F T E R the supreme Jewish tragedy the Arctic lands or to Antarctica, nor of recent years, our American to interplanetary space, but to our spiri Jewry can no longer look to Russia, itual Jewish center, the State of Israel. Poland or Germany for providing it In that land there has been a momen with rabbis, cantors, teachers and tous and an inspiring Jewish rebirth. shochtim, just as a large Sephardic The astounding and almost incredible community such as that of Bombay creativity of Israel along so many lines can no longer look as it did heretofore gives, us the right to ask for even to bring these essential religious func greater inspirational development there tionaries from what is now Jewishly in the field of religion. One finds there devastated Baghdad. Without religious a wonderful renewed love for the leaders how is our Judaism to persist? Bible. Few are the public addresses of From where is world Jewry to draw Prime Minister Ben Gurion in which religious leaders beyond the compara his policy is not supported by ample tively few who are trained in lands quotations from the Bible. A crowded such as the United States and England? and illuminating Bible class is held Once more "from Zion must come regularly in the home of the President, forth Torah, and the word of the Lord Ben Zvi. But beyond all this intense from Jerusalem.” study of the Bible and of all other Traditional Jewry in America, be Jewish lore, in Israel there is still room sides encouraging schools of Jewish there for intensive religious activity learning in America, should systemati by our Union. cally stimulate the religious educational There are today in the Holy Land institutions in Israel to train modern some extraordinarily modern institu religious and educational leaders for tions where Talmudic learning shares world Jewry. W e must help assure the program with secular studies or that these be men not of a past genera even with a scientific study of agricul tion, living spiritually and inertially ture. There are others which concen in a ghetto of their own, but men trate on rabbinic learning to the exclu equipped also with general knowledge sion of secular and world interests. and an acquaintance with world prob W e must make ourselves felt by help lems. They must be men able to under ing bridge the gulf between old and stand the points of view of the young new, and between so many religious generation both in Israel and wherever leaders and the youth. W e have a com Jews live. They must be men who can pelling task in Israel steadily and con maintain mutually understanding rela stantly to knock on the doors of Israel’s tions with men of other faiths. At the religious leaders, of its Yeshivoth and recent Jewish Tercentenary celebration training schools for teachers, and of in London’s Guildhall, both the Ash60

JEWISH LIFE

kenazi and the Sephardi Chief Rabbis were at one with the city’s Lord Mayor, Prime Minister Eden, and with the Duke of Edinburgh, who, incidentally, brought in his pocket his own head covering for use during the prayers at that kosher banquet. The Archbishop of Canterbury counted these rabbis among his guests in his residence at Lambeth Palace where he gave a gar den party which was completely kosher. Our religious leaders must be men

who will thus command respect, and who will understand and relate them selves to the practical needs of today’s Jewish communities, whether in Ala bama or Morocco, in Rio de Janeiro or Calcutta, in Barcelona or New Zea land, in Bangkok or Tel Aviv, It is primarily to help bring this about that the Orthodox Union must include the land of Israel in the field of its active service.

The Challenge TX7E CANNOT rely for our Jewish Jerusalem and G-d’s Temple were de " survival on the momentum of our stroyed, it was also he in the days which unique past without ourselves methodi followed who encouraged his suffering, cally planning and building organically bleeding people to build their future for the future. The Passover does not anew. When, nineteen centuries ago, limit itself to commemorating the Rabbi Yochanan ben Zaccai saw that stupendous deliverance of our ancestors the Holy City and its Temple would from slavery in Egypt. On it begins be destroyed, he did not sit despair the forward looking counting of the ingly in bewailing impotence. He went days when we moved on from newly forth to build in Yavneh a new cente.r won physical freedom to the spiritual from which there was destined to be freedom given us at Mt. Sinai. W e did given to the world the message of not remain wandering desert bedouins. Judaism ever strengthened and en There was always the call of the Prom riched. In our generation also, though we ised Land to lead us on to the morrow. In all the development of traditional have looked on disastrous and cata orthodox Judaism, its being rooted in strophic losses, we yet must face the the past has never dimmed its vision future with courage and vision. The of the future. Even in days of con problems confronting Judaism today summate tragedy Jews have never only in New York, in Tel Aviv, every bent low and mourned their losses. where, challenge us to rise up and Though on the black fast of Av we broaden the perspective of our work. may sit on the ground in a darkened In the measure that we attune our selves to hear the worldwide call of synagogue and chant bitter dirges, we our brethren will there be a stirring do not remain among the ashes and and an inspiring of new dedicated scorched rubble of our tragic past. On workers among us. The thrill of the the afternoon of that fast day we sing, life - saving and life - giving service "Comfort, comfort My people/’ as which we offer will evoke for our with renewed courage and hope we activities new enthusiam and new sup resolve to build a future of light. port. In this spirit the work of the Though it was the prophet Jeremiah Orthodox Union must go on from who chanted the Lamentations when strength to strength. Sept.-Oct.* 1956

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By D AVID S. SHAPIRO T H E GOAL of creation, as conceived A by Judaism, is the dwelling of G-d’s presence upon earth in the midst of the children of men. The re-establish ment of the original harmony between G-d and man is the aim of prophetic Revelation. How has this purpose been fulfilled? The Revelation at Sinai, aside from its intrinsic significance, was also meant to serve as the prototype and foreshadowing of the highest at tainment of the race, namely, the out pouring of G-d’s spirit upon all flesh, a consummation which will be ful filled in the end of time (Joel 3.1-2)> But the Sinaitic Revelation was also meant to initiate a new dimension in the relationship between G-d and man —the study of the Torah, the com munication of G-d’s word to man. The embodiment of this communication in the Torah provides the answer to the perennial question: Why has Revela tion ceased? G-d still speaks, Judaism affirms. Everytime we read the Book of the Law, everytime we peruse the Talmudic tomes, everytime we scan the codifications of the Law, it is the . word of G-d that is being communi cated to us. "Study is supreme because it leads to action”, the Talmud declares (Kiddushin 4 0 b ). However, the study of Torah is supreme for its own sake, study for the sake of living in His pre sence and hearkening to His voice. The exigencies of life make it almost impossible for the average human being to find his way to the heights, much less to reach them. W hat hope Sept.-Oct., 1956

is there for him to participate in the word of G-d and communicate with Him? Is he to be denied his share in the Law of G-d? The answer to this agonizing question is found in the institution of prayer established by Judaism. *£HE TERM prayer as it is generally understood is not congruous with the institution of prayer in Judaism. W e usually think of prayer as an ex pression of pleas and requests for the fulfillment of our needs and wants, supplemented by words that bespeak our sentiments towards our Creator. As we shall see, traditional Jewish prayer contains much more than these elements. In order better to under stand the full meaning of prayer in accordance with our tradition, let us analyze the basic divisions of our system of prayers. W e have three daily prayers, known as the morning prayer (Shacharith), the afternoon prayer (M inchah), and the evening prayer ( A r v i t h or Maariv).. There are the additional prayers (Musaf) on the New-Moon, the Sabbath and the Festivals. On the Day of Atonement, we have a fifth prayer, known as the closing prayer (Neilah), The morning and the even ing prayers have two basic compo nents, the essentials of the Jewish prayer book: 1) the reading of the Shema • ( Keriath Shema) , and 2); Tejilldb or prayer in the more precise sense of the term. First of all, let us examine the Shema. 63

The Shema consists of three sec tions from the Chumosh: 1) The por tion begining with the clarion-call to the Jewish people: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our G-d, the Lord is One, And thou shalt love the Lord thy G-d with all thy heart, with all thy might, and with all thy soul, etc. (Devorim 6:4-9). 2) The second passage, from Devorim, 11:13-21, speaks of. the re wards that will accrue as a result of our obedience to G-d’s command ments and the dire punishment that will follow our failure to live up to them. 3) The third passage is from the book of Bemidbar 15:37-41. These verses speak of the commandment to wear fringes to serve unto us as a reminder of G-d’s commandments.

T™ OBLIGATION to read the

Shema is regarded by our sages as of Mosaic origin. W hat is the reason for this commandment to read the Shema and the accompanying passages as an obligation grounded in Divine Law (d’oraitha) ? First, reading the Shema constitutes the fulfillment of the highest obliga tion placed upon Israel, namely, that of striving for continuous commu nion with G-d through the study of the Torah. In concentrating on the Shema one has already fulfilled this obligation, even though at its mini mum. In the words of the Shema, di rected to every son of Israel through out the ages, G-d addresses each and every one of us as we arise in the morning and as we lie down at night. It is thus that every son of Israel par ticipates in the Torah. Second, the reading of the Shema constitutes for Israel the acceptance of G-ds sovereignty ( kabbolath ol malchuth shomayim). Let us examine the meaning of this concept. G-d is represented in the Bible in 64

various passages as the King of Israel (Isaiah 44:6) or the King of the Nations (Jer.10.7) Where G-ds Pro vidence is denied and His authority flouted, His Kingship remains unre cognized. Thus tJtie early generations of Biblical history are described in the Sifre as rebels against G-d’s rule. The task of Abraham, according to Jewish tradition, was the restoration of G-d’s Kingdom upon earth. He proclaimed G-d as sovereign over heaven and earth. Abraham, moreover, created the first human community that recog nized the One and Eternal G-d as sovereign. However, Abraham’s achievement was only temporary. Through Jacob a family originated that recognized G-d as its King. The goal, however, was the creation of a people and a nation over whom G-d would be the Sover eign, as He had promised Abraham. Only when the nation of its own free will made the decision to accept the Lord of the universe as its own Sovereign would this telos of history be achieved. This fulfillment actually took place at the Red Sea when Israel proclaimed in its Song of Redemp tion: "The Lord shall reign forever and ^ever” (lb. 15.18). This is the first passage in the Bible where the Kingship of G-d is explicitly referred to. The recognition of G-d as our King means the recognition of the Law of G-d as supreme in our lives. This con stitutes the essential meaning of Sinai and of Israel’s affirmation which re verberates throughout the ages: We shall do and we shall hearken (Shemoth 24:7).

THE FIRST two of the Ten Commandments, 1 am the Lord Thy G-d Who brought thee out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, Thou shalt have no other gods before Me, are the JEWISH LIFE

pronouncement of G-d’s absolute and exclusive sovereignty over Israel. The other commandments are the obliga tions placed by the Sovereign of His people over the nation He had created. In what way does the reading of the Shema differ from the mental af firmation of G-d’s Sovereignty, enjoy ed by the First and Second Command ments, which is the enduring impera tive of our lives? The Commandments are addressed to individuals: "I am the Lord Thy G-d, Thou shalt have no other G-ds before Me”. As in all the Commandments of the Decalogue every member of the House of Israel is being addressed. The Shema, on the other hand, reads: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our G-d, the Lord is One”. In the Shema the entire people is bebeing addressed. Israel is the nation which accepts the One G^d, the Crea tor of heaven and earth, as its only Sovereign. The Shema, which is re cited twice every day, morning and evening, thus becomes the coronation of G-d in the midst of the House of Israel. T H E SHEMA obligates us to deeds. "Thou shalt love the L-rd thy G-d with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might”. Every member of the Congregation of Israel

is being admonished. He must be ready to love the Lord with his very life and all his possessions, in carrying aloft the banner of His Unity. The second section of the Shema speaks of the great obligation that devolves upon the entire people to build the edifice of its corporate and individual life upon the foundations of the Divine Law. Blessing will fol low obedience. Exile and suffering will follow the rejection of the authority of the Law as supreme in the life of the nation and its members. The third paragraph of the Shema again speaks of our duty ever to re member G-d’s commandments so that we never go astray after the prompt ings of our animal nature. Do not fol low after your hearts and your eyes. W e are ever to think of G-d as our Redeemer Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt to be our G-d, so that we may be holy unto Him. The Shema is the affirmation of our unshaken faith in G-d’s Unity, of our belief in G-d’s righteousness which leads to the triumph of justice. The Shema asseverates G-d as the Re deemer from slavery Who calls upon us to liberate ourselves from the ty ranny of our baser urgings to lift our selves to the peaks of holiness in His presence.

The Duty of Man operation of His hands. The great INTHE fifth chapter of Isaiah we Biblical scholar, Armand Kaminka,

read the following denunciation of the Prophet’s contemporaries: Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that tarry late into the night, till wine inflame them! And the harp and the psaltery, the tabret and the pipe, and wine, are in their feasts; but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither have they considered the Sept.-0ct.f 1956

has pointed out in his work Mecharim the relationship of these verses in Isaiah with contrasting verses in the 92nd Psalm (2-7): "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto Thy name, O most High; to declare Thy loving kindness in the morning; and Thy faithfulness in the night seasons, with an instru65

ment of ten strings, and with the psal tery; with a solemn sound upon the harp. For Thou, O Lord, hast made me glad through Thy work. Psalms and the Prophets aré at one in declaring it to be the duty of man to contemplate the works of G-d upon arising and retiring. Only this con templation can lift man to the know ledge of G-d and His ways so that his direction in life will not be lost. Man rises to G-d through exultation in the works of G-d and the operation of His hands. These terms have a double significance in the Bible. They refer to G-d’s works in Nature as well as to the operation of His Providence in human history, and particularly His wondrous works for His people. The two media through which man attains the knowledge of G-d are: Nature and History.

dren. G-d has granted reason toyman, He has revealed the Torah of Life to him, He has elected Israel to receive His Torah and through it to bring light to all mankind. This election of, and Revelation through, Israel is also a manifestation of G-d’s operation in History and His concern and love for humanity. "With abounding love hast Thou loved us, O Lord our G-d, and great and overflowing tenderness hast Thou shown us. O, Our Father, our King, for our father’s sake . . . put it into our hearts to understand and to discern, to mark, learn and teach, to heed, to do and to fulfill in love all the words of instruction in Thy Torah. Blessed are Thou, O Lord, Who hast chosen Thy people Israel in love.** ‘

After this glorious affirmation we are ready to pronounce the Shema. Upon completing the Shema, we reassert our faith in G-d as the Redeemer, the eternal Liberator of all the oppressed and humiliated.

'J'H E AUTHORS of our Prayer Book "True it is that Thou art indeed the Lord our G-d, and the G-d of our fathers, our have well understood the lesson of Maker, the Rock of our salvation; our De the Psalmist and the Prophet, and so liverer and Rescuer from everlasting, such is they have enveloped the Shema with Thy Name; there is no G-d beside Thee. . . . the glorious benedictions known as Who is high and exalted, great and revered; Who bringeth low the haughty, and raiseth the "blessings that precede and follow up the lowly, freeth the prisoners, delivereth the Shema” (Berochoth 11a). In the the meek, helpeth the poor, and answereth morning, before the reading of the f His people when they cry unto Him.** Shema, we proclaim the Unity of all Nature. G-d is the author of light and ^ H E EVENING Shema likewise fol darkness. However, it is in the rising lows the same pattern and is presun that we see G-d as the source of *ceded and followed by special blessings. life and the constant recreator of the The Sovereignty of G-d over the night world in unchanging mercy. is affirmed. G-d has not turned the "Thou Who givest light to the earth and night over to demonic and destructive to them that dwell thereon in mercy, and forces. The night-season is an integral in Thy goodness renewest the creation every part of His plan for the universe. day continually. How manifold are Thy works, O Lord. In wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy creatures. . . . Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Creator of the luminaries.**

The joy afforded to us by the physical luminaries does not, however, com pare with the glory of the spiritual light that G-d has given to His chil66

"Blessed are Thou, O Lord our G-d, King of the universe, W ho at Thy word bringest on thé evening twilight, with wisdom openest the gates of heavens, and with understanding changest times and variest the seasons, and arrangest the stars in their watches in the sky, according to Thy Will. . . . Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Who bringest on the evening twilight.** JEWISH LIFE

The night is given to us not only for rest and for the contemplation of the wonders of the stars in their courses, but also for the study of the Torah. This thought leads to the second of the preliminary blessings which par allel those of the morning Shema! “W ith everlasting love hast Thou loved the House of Israel, Thy people; a Torah and commandments, statutes and judgments hast Thou taught us. Therefore, O Lord our G-d, when we lie down and when we rise up we will meditate on Thy statutes. . . . Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Who lovest Thy people Israel.’*

When the Shema is concluded, îwe again take up a variation on the theme of G-d as Liberator: “It is He Who redeemed us from the hand of kings, even our King, Who deliyered ,us from the grasp of all tyrants. . . . Who maintaineth us in life, and hath not suf fered our feet to slip; Who made us to over come and conquer our enemies, and exalted our strength above all them that hated us. . . . Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Who hast redeemed Israel.”

A benediction, containing a petition for a tranquil and restful evening un der the shelter of the Providence of G-d Who is the Guardian of Israel forever, follows. Only the thought of G-d as the true Redeemer can bring

calm and peace to the individual soul (Berochoth 4b). In the post-Talmudic period, a brief section was added to the Shema cycle, apparently by the Saboraim. This sec tion contains a beautiful summary of everything that the Shema and its re lated benedictions stand for: “Blessed be the Lord by day; blessed be the Lord by night; blessed be the Lord when we lie down; blessed be the Lord when we rise up. For in Thy hands are the souls of the living and the dead, as it is said. In His hand is the soul of every living thing, and the spirit of all human flesh. Into Thy hand I commend my spirit, . . . Blessed are Thou, O Lord, the King, Who constantly in His glory will reign over us and over all His works for ever and ever.”

The grandeur of this prayer testifies eloquently to the profound religious spirit which animated the sages of Israel in the post-Talmudic era. The Shema and its accompanying blessings are thus the fulfillment of the Psalmist’s and the Prophet’s admoni tion that we seek G-d at the dawn and the twilight by contemplating His works in heaven above, and by re calling His gracious Providence in the history of man and Israel on earth.

The Sacrificial Service ■JHE SECTION of the service known his heart? That is prayer is considered * in the Talmud and Codes as "avodah” ( service). Perhaps we should go even farther. "Tefillah” or prayer par excellence re fers to the Eighteen Benedictions What, in general, does the "service of (Shemoneh Esreh) , which follow im G-d” mean? Does G-d need our serv mediately upon the Shema cycle. This ice? "If thou be righteous what givest portion of the service is sometimes re thou him? Or what receiveth He of ferred to as the "Amidah” because it thy hand?” (Job 35:7). what does is recited in a standing position. G-d need that we can provide? We Prayer is sometimes spoken of as need Him, but He does not need us. "Avodah” or service. In the Talmudic Service of G-d, consequently, can have sources we find that the injunction no other meaning than carrying out concerning prayer is derived from the the will of G-d. W e are bidden to ful Biblical verse "to serve G-d with all of fill His commandments not for any one’s heart” (Devorim 11:13). "What advantage that He can gain thereby, service is there that one performs with but for our perfection and the perSept.-0ct.f 1956

fection of the universe of which we are part. In the light of the interpretation of prayer as the commitment of the soul to incessant striving for perfection through dedication to G-d and His Law, we can perhaps better understand the relationship between prayer and sacrifice about which we read in our ancient sources. Thus we already find in the Book of Hosea: So we will render for bullocks the offering of our lips (1 4 :3 ). In the Talmud we read that the morning and afternoon prayers take the place of the public offerings of the morning and afternoon brought in the Temple in Jerusalem. It is fashionable at the present time to disparage the sacrificial service as abhorrent to the

civilized mind, and as a mark of a primitive level of religious develop ment. To this stricture may the follow ing remarks be addressed. As long as we do not practice vegetarianism, we have no right to proffer moral objec tions to the sacrificial system. If we feel that we have the right to slaughter animals for food, we obviously regard the animal kingdom as subservient to us for all our needs. The Prophets are often cited as denouncing the sacrificial cult. If we accept this argument at its face value, we should also disparage prayer and music at divine service. Did not Isaiah add to his vehement outcry against the multitude of the burntofferings, these words: And when ye

JEWISH LIFE

spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, 1 will not hear (1:15)? Listen, however, to what fol lows: Your hands are full of blood. This is the reason why neither such sacrifice nor such prayer is acceptable to G-d. And did not Amos who pro claimed that G-d will not accept burntofferings and mean-offerings also cry out: Take thou away from Me the noise of thy songs; and let Me not hear the melody of thy psalteries” (5:22) ? Let us read what follows: But let justice well up as waters, and right eousness as a mighty stream. Not only the Prophets, the Halochah itself, the Law of the Torah, denounces the of ferings of evil-doers as an abomina tion. It is this same Halochah which declares the prayers of evil-doers, with out proper repentance, as an abomina-

tion. The thief who blesses G-d is really blaspheming Him, affirms the Talmud. These find their atonement through punishment and repentance or through restoration. Only in a few cases is a deliberate transgression atoned for by sacrifice. The offerings of the Torah are to be brought from the heart overflowing with thankfulness or out of the heart of the contrite sinner who had done wrong unwittingly. In all cases, a sacrifice without confession and re pentance is unacceptable. It should, moreover, be noted that the sacrificial system, according to the Torah, is limited to the precincts of the Sanc tuary in Jerusalem. It is forbidden, under severe sanctions, to bring sacri fices anywhere else at any time. This ambivalent attitude towards the offer ings is deeply significant.

The Purpose of Sacrifice ^ H A T do the sacrifices signify? All created beings have been placed under man’s dominion. It is man’s task not merely to. exploit crea tion, but to lift it to G-d. When man dedicates his possessions to an ideal that transcends his personal needs, when he relinquishes his power and dominion for a purpose that does not serve his ego, only then has he truly begun to fulfill his task as a human being. Plants must wither. Animals must die. And so must men. Men, however, need to live. Animals, plants, the earth itself are the instruments whereby humanity elevates itself, and through itself also them, to G-d on high. Men themselves often achieve their highest stature in death. The animal and plant achieve their significance not while chewing their cud or rotting on the Sept.-0ct.f 1956

ground, but either in helping man build G-d’s world, or when they build up the bodies of men who carry a di vine dream in their hearts, or when they rise skyward upon the altar, rep resenting and confirming man’s readi ness to relinquish his most prized possessions for the sake of that which is most sacred. The burnt-offering of the Torah is thus never made compul sory for an individual. It must be brought out of a completely unselfish and dedicated heart. Hence the pro phetic denunciation of burnt-offerings brought with unclean hands for pur poses of exhibitionism, flattery to G-d, or appeasement. Thus is justified the Talmudic dictum: "The ignorant man (am-ha-aretz) is forbidden to eat meat” (Pesahim 49b). Only he who is aware of the purpose of creation and can elevate the animal kingdom to 69

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G-d by sacrifice can also lift the animal to G-d by permitting it to become the physical basis for his striving to reach his Creator. Sacrifice is thus the means whereby all of creation is lifted to G-d. Prayer is the dedication of all of man’s pow ers to G-d. It is indeed most significant, a fact which, as far as the present writer knows, has remained unnoticed, that the greatest book of prayers which humanity possesses, the Psalms, orig inated in the courtyards of the Temple in Jerusalem. The Psalms were, for the most part, written as an accompani ment to the sacrificial service. How profound must have been the religious experience of the truly pious and faith ful who were able to sing: One thing have l asked of the Lord, that will 1 seek after: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all .the days of my life, and to visit early, in His temple (Ps. 27:4). How deep was the yearn ing of these saints for the manifesta tion of G-d’s glory in His sacred house: Send out Thy light and Thy truth; let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy mountain, and to Thy dwell ing-places; then will I g6 unto the altar of G-d, unto G-d, my exceeding joy; and praise Thee upon the harp, 0 G-d my G-d (lb. 43:3-4). g U T WHEREAS sacrifice was limited to the Sanctuary in 'Jerusalem, prayer is not bound to any specific place. For prayer represents a ceaseless striving. The soul that is constantly struggling to lift itself unto G-d is al ways rising on the wings of prayer. In this sense one may understand the statement of the late Chief Rabbi Kook: “Prayer does not reach its per fection except through the awareness that the soul, in truth, is always pray ing” (Olath Reiyah, Vol. I, p. 1 1 ) . But prayer is also an achievement. Sept.-Oct., 1956

W hat greater privilege can man have than that of being able to stand in the presence of his Maker and to address Him, in full conviction that He is listening to our words, which we pour out before Him, as a son to his father? To stand in the presence of G-d has thus become a synonym for prayer in Biblical literature. The study of Torah and prayer are the two occasions of contact and com munion between man and G-d; in study it is G-d Who is speaking to man, and in prayer it is man who is speaking to G-d. For this reason prayer is spoken of as dialogue (sichah) be cause through it a meeting (pegiah) between man and G-d is established. He who stands in prayer must think of the Shechinah, the Divine Presence, as standing before him. Nevertheless, man may stand before Him, and not kneel or cringe. Only in specific places are the knees to be bent. The worship per stands in His presence, to dem onstrate that G-d does not seek the humiliation of His creatures. When the name of the Eternal is mentioned, he who prays lifts his head aloft, for “the Lord raiseth up them that are bowed down”. One must pray while imbued with the sense of the Lord’s supremacy and authority, but not in a spirit of sadness. One must unite with in his soul the great awe and supreme joy: Rejoice with trembling ( Ps. 2:11). The trembling and joy must go to gether; for this reason one must dress in the finest garments when preparing to stand in the presence of the King of the universe. K CCORDING to Maimonides, prayer consists of three phases in consec utive order: 1) reciting the praises of G-d; 2) making petition for our 71

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needs; 3) expression of gratitude to G-d for the favors He has bestowed upon us. . W hat is the meaning of the praises we offer before G-d? Silence is Thy praise, 0 G-d in Zion” (Ps. 65:1). G-d is fearful in praises (Shemoth 15:11), to which Rashi comments: "He is too awe-inspiring for the utter ance of praises”. Our sages have for bidden to add, in formal prayer, any laudatory adjectives to the three "the great, the mighty, and the revered” for which there is a precedent in the Torah. The pinning of descriptive ad jectives to G-d seems to imply an ability on the part of human beings to penetrate into the depths of G-d’s being and plumb His nature. At best we understand G-d in human' terms, and our descriptive phraseology is more a reflection of our own dreams and idealizations than an understanding of Deity per se. That the attributes we apply to G-d often seem to be in con flict with our experience is an addi tional reason for the limitation of our language of praise. Finally the use of praises in addressing G-d was consid ered a violation of the ethical man’s sensibilities. G-d is the exemplar of human behavior, even in his respect (Bereyshith Rabbah 32,3). G-d loves the humble and the meek. G-d Him self is the embodiment of humility. "Wherever the greatness of G-d is spoken of, there mention is made of His humility” (Megillah 31a). W e have nevertheless been permit ted a modicum of laudation in our formal prayers. For this there may be three reasons: 1) It is our nature to express our wonderment, no matter how feebly we are able to do so, in the presence of the sulbime. The praises we address in the direction of G-d thus become the test of our own ability to respond to the grandeur of the Sept.-Oct., 1956

universe and Israel’s history. 2) Flattery is abominable. But there is nothing more beautiful than the langiiage of love. Who has ever been offended by the extravagant praises of the lovers for each other in the in comparable Song of Songs? The song of pure and holy love is the most glorious music. In the love of G-d and in singing His glory we attain the peak of our humanity—the soul of man ris ing to G-d in the flame of heavenly love. And in singing His praises, that unique property of humanity—man’s power of speech—is purified into the medium for the articulation of this divine quality of cosmic love with which we have been blessed. It is good to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto Thy name, 0 Most High (Psalms 92:2). 3 ) The praise of G-d sets for us an example for our conduct. W e are bid den to imitate G-d. "Just as He is merciful, so be thou merciful; just as He is gracious, so be thou likewise gracious” (Mechilta, Shemoth 15:2). This is the meaning of the command ment to walk in the ways of G-d. When we speak the praises of G-d, we set before ourselves the example of Divinity in Whose image we are created. G-d’s greatness is defined in the first of the Eighteen Benedictions as being the bestowal of loving kind ness, and remembering the gracious deeds of ages past. His might is in terpreted as meaning the sustenance of life with lovingkindness, reviving the dead with great mercy, supporting the falling, healing the sick, freeing the bound, and keeping faith to them that sleep in the dust. The quality of awe is defined as G-d’s holiness. What wonderful ideals for us in our own frail and humble way to follow! Holy shall ye be, for holy am I, the Lord your G-d (Vayikra 12:2). 73

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JEWISH LIFE

Public Prayer

p R O M doxology we move in our prayers to petitions for our needs. Throughout our formal prayers, there are no requests for one’s individual needs. Our prayers are a plea, not for ourselves, but for all our people, and all humanity. W e pray for those ne cessities whereby we may be in a posi tion to fulfill our destinies as children of our Father in Heaven. W e there fore ask for those blessings which are the media of our spiritual elevation and perfection. W e ask for knowledge and understanding, for a return to G-d and His Torah, for the ability to re pent, and the forgiveness of sin. W e pray for the release from affliction and the speeding of redemption, for the healing of the sick, and the bless ing of the soil, for the ingathering of our exiles, and the establishment of the reign of justice in the world. W e ask for the overthrow of tyranny and the discomfiture of its perpetrators. W e plead for the righteous and the good, for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the establishment of the Messianic kingdom; we beseech the acceptance of all prayer. Prayers for the individual may be inserted, but our prayers are not essentially meant to be pleas for individual salvation and help. They are prayers of the entire congregation of Israel standing in the presence of its G-d and Father making supplication for Israel and humanity. In retmn for my love they are my adversaries; but 1 'am all prayer (Ps. 109:4)., These words are interpreted by our sages in the Midrash as referring to the people of Israel. Israel is all prayer for hu manity. In the light of this view we can un derstand the importance attached in our tradition to public prayer and the necessity of a quorum of ten. Prayer Sept.-Oct., 1956

is obligatory and praiseworthy at all times and under diverse conditions. But the prayer of the community with in its own synagogue is far more com mendable. This prayer is the voice of the delegates of G-d’s people pouring forth their soul before G-d in behalf of their people and all of creation. If RE petitional prayers answered?

G-d is spoken of as the "One Who hears prayer”: "O Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee doth all flesh come” (Ps. 65:3). W e affirm the existence of G-d Who has created the world and is the Master of Nature and not its prisoner, hence there can be no a priori objection to accepting G-d as the One Who answers prayer. Since man is free, G-d’s deals with man in accordance with man’s conduct. If man calls to G-d, we may rightly assume that G-d can and will answer him. Can G-d change the course of na tural law? G-d is the Author of nature. Can He not circumvent some laws by employing others? Can He not tem porarily abrogate natural law when the entire future of the world is at stake? And who isr so small and me^n in the eyes of G-d that he may not acquire his world in one moment, as the Tal mud puts it, or who, by one deed may not balance the world toward salvation or destruction? More legitimate than asking whether G-d can answer prayer is the question whether G-d does answer prayer? For an answer to this question we can only turn to the experience of men of pray er throughout all generations who affirm the validity and efficacy of prayer. We have no way of judging in our everyday life how many of our benefi cent experiences are due to natural causes or to prayer. The arrogant and 75

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impious mail will attribute all success in his endeavors to his own wisdom, prowess and influence. The supercilious sophisticate will give all credit to na ture or chance. The religious man has no choice but to lift his heart to the source of his existence, the fountain of living waters, his King and his G-d. The question as to whether ex perience evidences G-d as answering prayer needs also to be judged against the background of the intensity of our supplications, not for the fulfillment of a particular need, but of our aspira tion to participate in the life of the Universe, the extent to which our prayers lift us to a life in the presence of G-d. W e need good health and a measure of material goods as a foun dation for a moral and spiritual life. But when our prayers never rise above exclusive concern for the physical, need we assume that they must be an swered? G-d also has a question to ask: "Will this life serve its best purpose in its present unchanged state, or may it not better serve its purpose in an other environment?” the situation of "the hiding of G-d’s Face*’ ( hastorath ponim) may also lead to a failure of nrayer being accepted, as we read in Devorim (31:17-18): And I will surely hide My Face that for all the evil which have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods”. This is the state of which Lamentations speaks: t(Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, so that no brayer can pass through” (Lam. 3:44). Ultimately, we have to admit that there can be no empirical solution to

Sept.-Oct., 1956

the problem of the efficacy of prayer, because of our inability to penetrate either into the mind of G-d or the mind of our fellowman: For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the L-rd. For the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8-9). Q U R PETITIONAL prayers are fol lowed by an expression of grati tude to G-d for the privilege of living in His presence. Life in His presence will be more complete when Zion will be restored and the Temple rebuilt. Hence the inclusion of the petition for the restoration of the divine service to Zion in the blessings of thanksgiving. Then follows the thanksgiving itself: " ¥ e declare Thy praise for our lives which are committed unto Thy hand, and for our souls which are in Thy charge, and for Thy miracles, which are daily with us, and for Thy wonders and Thy benefits which are wrought at all times, evening, morn, and noon. O Thou Who art all good, Whose mercies fail not; Thou merciful One, Whose loving kindnesses never cease, we have ever hoped in Thee.”

W ith a prayer for peace over Israel, the Eighteen Blessings (the Shemoneh Esreh), which constitute for us prayer par excellence, are concluded. Three times a day the Eighteen Ben edictions are recited. Three times a day the Congregation of Israel stands in the presence of G-d. So it has stood for thousands of years. So it still stands. So it will stand as the days of the heavens above the earth.

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